Parkes observations for project P958 semester 2019APRS_43

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) continue to raise more questions than they answer. Until a few months ago, only one burst – the only one known to repeat - had been localized to a bright radio nebula (either a young supernova remnant or pulsar wind nebulae) in a distant dwarf galaxy. \r\nOver the last year searches with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) have detected 28 bursts, two of which have been localised to host galaxies at redshifts > 0.3. These bursts and their hosts are very unlike the repeater, suggesting there may be a dichotomy in the population. Over the next six months we expect to detect another 12 FRBs, which will also have sub-arcsecond localisations. 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 Bursts, FRBs）至今引发的学术疑问仍远多于其已探明的答案。直至数月前，人类仅发现一例已知会重复爆发的快速射电暴，并将其定位至遥远矮星系中的明亮射电星云——该星云可能为年轻超新星遗迹，或是脉冲星风云。
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）开展的巡天搜索，研究团队已探测到28次快速射电暴爆发，其中两例被精确定位至红移大于0.3的宿主星系。这些爆发及其宿主星系与此前发现的重复暴特征差异显著，暗示快速射电暴群体或存在二分性。
未来六个月内，我们预计将再探测到12次快速射电暴，并对其开展亚角秒级精确定位。本研究计划针对该群体展开重复爆发搜寻：依托覆盖全面的观测样本，以及对已精确定位爆发源的高密度监测计划，且本次监测的能流极限较此前探测阈值低60倍以上。通过该研究，我们将要么证实群体中存在更多重复暴，要么证明FRB 121102是该群体中唯一的重复暴源。