Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2018OCTS_15

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：重复快速射电暴FRB 121102被精确定位至亚角秒级精度的天区。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（supernova remnant）或脉冲星风云（pulsar wind nebulae）。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）的优先宿主星系，因此有学者提出，重复快速射电暴的源可能为年轻的强磁化中子星（highly magnetised neutron star）。
尽管我们对重复快速射电暴的认知正逐步清晰，但目前仍不清楚其与其余快速射电暴群体之间的关联机制。
过去一年间，借助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个快速射电暴事件，而未来六个月内有望再探测到12个可定位于数角秒精度天区的快速射电暴。
本研究拟针对该快速射电暴群体开展重复暴搜寻工作。
我们将通过覆盖完整样本的观测方案，以及对精确定位暴源的高密度监测计划，在注量极限（fluence limit）较此前探测结果低60倍以上的条件下开展观测，最终或可证实额外重复快速射电暴的存在，或是证明FRB 121102在快速射电暴群体中具有独特性。