Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018APRS_10

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.

快速射电暴（fast radio burst, FRB）天文学领域近期取得重大突破——重复快速射电暴FRB 121102被精确定位至亚角秒级精度。研究表明，该暴源起源于遥远矮星系中的明亮射电星云（学界推测其为年轻超新星遗迹或脉冲星风云）。这类矮星系同时也是超亮超新星与长伽马射线暴的偏好宿主天体，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深化，但目前仍未明确其与其余暴源群体的关联。
在未来六个月内，依托澳大利亚平方千米阵探路者望远镜（Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, ASKAP）开展的巡天搜寻，有望至少探测到20例新增快速射电暴，其中部分暴源可被定位至数角秒精度范围内。
本研究提议针对该暴源群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。我们的全面样本以及针对定位精确的暴源实施的高密度监测计划，其能流极限比此前探测结果低60倍以上，这将能够验证是否存在更多重复快速射电暴，或是确认FRB 121102在暴源群体中的独特性。