Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018APRS_01

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 next six months, searches with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) are poised to detect at least 20 additional FRBs, some that 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.

近期，快速射电暴（fast radio burst, FRB）天文学领域取得重大突破：重复快速射电暴FRB 121102被定位至亚角秒级精度范围内。研究发现，该暴源源自遥远矮星系内一颗明亮的射电星云——该星云被推测为年轻超新星遗迹或脉冲星风星云。这类矮星系同时也是超亮超新星与长伽马射线暴的优先宿主星系，因此有假说提出，重复快速射电暴的源可能为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加深，但目前仍不清楚其与其他快速射电暴群体之间存在何种关联。
未来六个月内，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，预计将至少探测到20例新增快速射电暴，其中部分暴源的定位精度可达数角秒级别。
本研究拟针对该快速射电暴群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。
我们将通过覆盖全面的样本库，以及针对定位精度较高的暴源开展的密集监测计划（通量极限较此前探测结果低60倍以上），要么证实额外重复快速射电暴的存在，要么证明FRB 121102在快速射电暴群体中具有独特性。