Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018OCTS_37

A major breakthrough in fast radio burst (FRB) astronomy was recently made when the repeating FRB 121102 was localized to sub-arcsecond precision. The bursts were found to originate in a bright radio nebula (hypothesized to be a young supernova remnant or pulsar wind nebulae) in a distant dwarf galaxy. These dwarf galaxies are also preferential hosts to superluminous supernova and long gamma-ray bursts, and it has been therefore suggested that the source of the repeating FRB could be a young highly magnetised neutron star. While an understanding of the repeating FRB is emerging, it is still unclear what relationship it has to the rest of the population. Over the last year searches with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) have detected 26 bursts, and over the next six month will likely detect another 12 FRBs, which will be localized to a few arcseconds. 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 burst, FRB）天文学领域近日取得重大突破：重复快速射电暴FRB 121102被定位至亚角秒级精度。研究发现该暴源源自遥远矮星系中的明亮射电星云——该星云被推测为年轻超新星遗迹或脉冲星风云。此类矮星系同时也是超亮超新星与长伽马射线暴的优选宿主星系，因此有研究提出，重复快速射电暴的起源可能是一颗年轻的强磁化中子星。尽管学界对重复快速射电暴的认知正逐步完善，但目前仍不清楚其与其他暴源群体之间存在何种关联。

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26次射电暴，且未来六个月内或将再探测到12次快速射电暴，这些暴源的定位精度将达到数角秒级别。

本研究拟对该暴源群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。我们将利用覆盖全面的样本，以及对定位精度优异的射电暴开展的密集监测计划，在注量极限较此前探测结果低60余倍的条件下开展观测，最终或可证实额外重复快速射电暴的存在，或是证明FRB 121102在该暴源群体中具有独特性。