Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018OCTS_63

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：重复暴FRB 121102的定位精度达到亚角秒级。研究显示，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（superluminous supernova）与长伽马射线暴（long gamma-ray bursts）的优选宿主星系，因此有学者提出，重复快速射电暴的起源可能为年轻强磁化中子星。
尽管目前学界对重复快速射电暴的认知正逐步完善，但仍不清楚其与其他暴源群体间的具体关联。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）开展的巡天探测已发现26例快速射电暴，且未来六个月内有望再探测到12例此类暴源，其定位精度将达到数角秒级。
在此背景下，我们拟针对该暴源群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。我们将通过覆盖全面的样本与针对精确定位暴源的高密度监测计划，将能流探测极限压低至此前探测结果的1/60以下，以此验证是否存在更多重复快速射电暴，或是证实FRB 121102在整个暴源群体中具有唯一性。