Repeating Fast Radio Bursts Come From Lively, not Dying, Neutron Stars

Summary: Repeating fast radio bursts are unexpectedly repetitive since previous FRBs have been non-repeating and linked with colliding or exploding neutron stars.

305-m Arecibo telescope and suspended support platform of radio receivers stand amidst star-filled night sky. A sequence of millisecond-duration radio flashes race from space towards the dish, where radio receivers reflect and detect them. Such radio signals are called fast radio bursts, and Arecibo is the first telescope to see repeat bursts from the same source: Danielle Futselaar, one-time use, via EurekAlert!

Multiple short bursts of radio waves, known as repeating fast radio bursts, are coming from outside the Milky Way Galaxy, according to a study published online March 2, 2016, in Nature.

Two researchers in the Netherlands, four in Germany, six in Canada and 10 in the United States base their findings upon 11 fast radio bursts (FRBs). Their three-plus years of research contrast with a study concerning FRB 150418, detected April 18, 2015, and published by 41 researchers in Nature Feb. 24, 2016. They deem FRB 121102 a “young, highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star” whereas the 41-member team consider FRB 150418 among “cataclysmic events (such as short γ-ray bursts).” The two teams independently express the possibility of there being non-repeating and repeating classes of fast radio bursts.

The 24-member team furnished with the study a data table that includes the millisecond dwell time and the gigahertz frequency for 11 observations of FRB 121102. The table goes from the discovery of the 17th burst, FRB 121102 Nov. 2, 2012, and Nov. 4, 2012, through follow-ups in 2013 and in 2015. Laura Spitler, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn, Germany, had the honor of discovery and the first follow-ups. Six follow-ups in May and June 2015 involved joint efforts with co-author Jason Hesserls of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and the University of Amsterdam. An observation by Nov. 5, 2013, Paul Scholz of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, joined the other 10.

The 10 fast radio bursts keep within gridding positions that are consistent with the declination (astro-latitude) and the right ascension (astro-longitude) of FRB 121102 of 2012. The low galactic latitude leads some scientists to question whether the repeating fast radio bursts are emanating from somewhere within, not beyond, the Milky Way Galaxy. The 24-member team measured the travel time of the repeating fast radio bursts at three times the expected commute from sources within the Milky Way Galaxy. The co-writers noted that detailed multi-wavelength investigations identify no “compact nebula” or an “intervening ionized nebula” or an “unmodelled Galactic structure” along the line of sight. Future access to radio interferometers offers possible identification of “arcsecond localization and association with a host galaxy” for FRB 121102.

The 305-m William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the 7-beam Arecibo L-band Feed Array provided the data for FRB 121102. The sensitivity of Arecibo’s instrumentation qualifies as “at least ten times higher” than that of the Parkes radio observatory in New South Wales, Australia, for FRB 150418. It resulted in the observation that “Parkes may have been capable of detecting only bursts 8 or 11” of FRB 121102’s 11 repeating fast radio bursts. It suggests that “FRB 121102 may be fundamentally different” from FRB 150418 and that “multiple astrophysical processes may be required to explain the diversity” among FRBs.

Jason Hessels told reporters that “I don’t think the final nail is in the coffin” for non-repeating and repeating FRBs.

Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory seems to display greater sensitivity in data for FRB 121102 than New South Wales's Parkes Observatory's data for FRB 150418; Parkes Observatory's 64-metre (210-foot) movable dish telescope at full extension to the ground; Oct. 15, 2013: Binarysequence (Dave L. Jones), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

305-m Arecibo telescope: Danielle Futselaar, one-time use, via EurekAlert! @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/110118.php

Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory seems to display greater sensitivity in data for FRB 121102 than New South Wales's Parkes Observatory's data for FRB 150418; Parkes Observatory's 64-metre (210-foot) movable dish telescope at full extension to the ground; Oct. 15, 2013: Binarysequence (Dave L. Jones), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Parkes_64m_Radio_Telescope_%22The_Dish%22_at_full_ground_Extension.JPG

For further information:

Chung, Emily. 2 March 2016. “Repeating Mysterious Radio Bursts from Deep Space Surprise Scientists.” CBC News > Technology & Science.
Available @ http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fast-radio-bursts-repeat-1.3472668

Cornell University. 2 March 2016. “Explosive Start Not Needed for Fast Radio Bursts.” EurekAlert! > Public Releases.
Available @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/cu-esn030216.php

Fey, Kathy. 2 March 2016. “Astronomers Discover Repeating Deep Space Radio Burst.” Space Reporter.
Available @ https://thespacereporter.com/2016/03/astronomers-discover-repeating-deep-space-radio-burst/

GeoBeats News. 2 March 2016. "Astronomers Identify Repeating Radio Bursts For The First Time." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbDxqMQvFw8

Griffin, Andrew. 3 March 2016. “Fast Radio Bursts: Scientists Hear ‘Huge’, Mysterious and Repeating Signal from Deep in Space.” Independent > News > Science.
Available @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fast-radio-bursts-scientists-hear-huge-mysterious-signal-from-deep-in-space-a6909211.html

Gush, Loren; and Rich McCormick. 2 March 2016. “Repeating Fast Radio Bursts Found Coming from Outside Our Galaxy.” The Verge > Science > Space.
Available @ http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/2/11150586/fast-radio-bursts-repeating-galaxy

MacDonald, Tyler. 3 March 2016. “Arecibo Radio Telescope Detects Repeating Fast Radio Burst for First Time Ever.” HNGN > Science.
Available @ http://www.hngn.com/articles/184421/20160303/arecibo-radio-telescope-detects-repeating-fast-radio-burst-for-first-time.htm

PBS Space Time @PBSSpaceTime. 2 March 2016. "First gamma ray burst seen repeating itself for the first time -- a baby neutron star in galaxy far far away??" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/PBSSpaceTime/status/705228891607146504

Rife, Jeanne. 3 March 2016. “For the First Time Ever, FRB Found That Keeps on Repeating.” New Hampshire Voice > Research > Science > Space.
Available @ http://nhv.us/content/16034686-first-time-ever-frb-found-keeps-repeating

Spitler, L.G.; P. Scholz; J.W.T. Hessels; S. Bogdanov; A. Brazier; F. Camilo; S. Chatterjee; J.M. Cordes; F. Crawford; J. Deneva; R.D. Ferdman; P.C.C. Freire; V.M. Kaspi; P. Lazarus; R. Lynch; E.C. Madsen; M.A. McLaughlin; C. Patel; S.M. Ransom; A. Seymour; I.H. Stairs; B.W. Stappers; J. van Leeuwen; and W.W. Zhu. 2 March 2016. “A Repeating Fast Radio Burst.” Nature > Research > Letters > Article > Letter. DOI: 10.1038/nature17168
Available @ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17168.html

Zastrow, Mark. 2 March 2016. “Fresh Confusion over Origins of Enigmatic Radio-Wave Blasts.” Nature > News & Comment > News > 2016 > March > Article.
Available @ http://www.nature.com/news/fresh-confusion-over-origins-of-enigmatic-radio-wave-blasts-1.19494