Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2019APRS_18

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) continue to raise more questions than they answer. Until a few months ago, only one burst – the only one known to repeat - had been localized to a bright radio nebula (either a young supernova remnant or pulsar wind nebulae) in a distant dwarf galaxy. \r\nOver the last year searches with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) have detected 28 bursts, two of which have been localised to host galaxies at redshifts > 0.3. These bursts and their hosts are very unlike the repeater, suggesting there may be a dichotomy in the population. Over the next six months we expect to detect another 12 FRBs, which will also have sub-arcsecond localisations. Here we propose to search this population for repeats. Our comprehensive sample and a dense monitoring campaign of well localised bursts, at a fluence limit more than 60 times lower than that of their detections, will either confirm the presence of additional repeating FRBs or the uniqueness of FRB 121102 amongst the population.

快速射电暴（Fast Radio Bursts, FRBs）所引发的科学问题，往往远超其所能解答的范围。直至数月之前，仅有一种快速射电暴——也是目前已知唯一具备重复爆发特性的暴源——被定位至某遥远矮星系内的明亮射电星云（可能为年轻超新星遗迹或脉冲星风云星云）中。
过去一年间，依托澳大利亚平方千米阵探路者（Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, ASKAP）开展的巡天观测已探测到28次快速射电暴，其中两例被精准定位至红移值大于0.3的宿主星系。此次发现的暴源及其宿主星系与该重复暴源特征迥异，这暗示快速射电暴群体或存在两类截然不同的子类。未来六个月内，我们预计将再探测到12次快速射电暴，且这些暴源同样将具备亚角秒级的定位精度。在此我们提出，将对该快速射电暴群体开展重复爆发搜寻。我们的完整样本集，以及针对定位精度优异的暴源开展的密集监测计划，其能流探测阈值较此前的探测结果低60倍以上——这一实验设计将要么证实存在更多重复快速射电暴，要么证明FRB 121102在该群体中具有独一无二的属性。