Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018APRS_BPSR_07

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）天文学领域近日取得重大突破，重复快速射电暴FRB 121102被精确定位至亚角秒级精度。研究发现该暴发源自遥远矮星系中的明亮射电星云（被推测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（superluminous supernova）与长伽马射线暴（long gamma-ray bursts）的优选宿主星系，因此有研究推测重复快速射电暴的起源可能为年轻的高度磁化中子星。尽管学界对重复快速射电暴的认知正在逐步完善，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，借助澳大利亚平方千米阵列探路者（Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, ASKAP）开展的巡天观测有望至少再探测到20个快速射电暴，其中部分将被定位至数角秒级精度。本研究拟针对该快速射电暴群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。我们将通过全面的样本采集，以及对定位精度较高的暴源开展密集监测计划——本次监测的能流密度探测极限较此前的探测结果低60倍以上——要么证实存在更多重复快速射电暴，要么证明FRB 121102在快速射电暴群体中具有独特性。