Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018APRS_BPSR_06

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121102被精确定位至亚角秒级精度。研究发现，该暴源起源于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，因此有假说提出，重复快速射电暴的源可能为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，但目前仍未明确其与快速射电暴其余群体间的关联。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，有望至少额外探测到20例快速射电暴，其中部分暴源的定位精度将达到数角秒级。本研究提议针对该暴源群体开展重复暴搜寻工作：我们将采用覆盖全面的样本，并对定位精度较高的暴源实施密集监测计划，将脉冲能流极限降至相较于此前探测结果低60倍以上的水平——此举将要么证实额外存在重复快速射电暴，要么证明重复快速射电暴121102在快速射电暴整体群体中具有独特性。