spinning, hypermagnetized neutron star.
It is conceivable that FRBs are emitted by
some yet unknown mechanism from these
magnetars (e.g., Metzger et al., 2017).
The Future of Fast Radio Bursts
The radio observations of FRBs give us al-
most no measure of distance, although,
under some circumstances, we may expect
to measure a lower bound on the redshift
via neutral hydrogen absorption. They do,
however, give us a limited view of the en-
vironment in which FRBs are born. Multi-
wavelength observations are essential for
identifying and characterizing hosts and the
environments of FRBs.
Future arcsecond-precision FRB localizations
will tell whether the dwarf galaxy hosting
FRB 121102 is typical of all FRBs, but it is cer-
tain that large optical observatories such as
Gemini, Keck, and VLT will be crucial for the
studies of this enigmatic class of transients.
With new FRB experiments such as the Ca-
nadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experi-
ment (CHIME; Kaspi et al., 2017, in prep), and
Swinburne University of Technology’s digital
backend upgrade for the Molonglo Obser-
vatory Synthesis Telescope (UTMOST; Bailes
et al., 2016), and Caltech’s 10-element Deep
Synoptic Array prototype (DSA-10; Ravi et
al., 2016) coming online in the near future,
the rate of FRB detection will increase signifi-
cantly — and along with it the challenge of
identifying and characterizing the hosts of
these bursts, in many cases with imprecise
localizations.
References:
Chatterjee, S., et al., “A direct localization of a fast
radio burst and its host,” Nature, 541: 58, 2017
Katz, J. I., Modern Physics Letters A, “Fast radio
bursts — A brief review: Some questions, fewer
answers,” arXiv:1630013, 2016
Lawrence, E., et al., “The Non-homogeneous
Poisson Process for Fast Radio Burst Rates,” arX-
iv:1611.00458, 2016
Lorimer, D. R., et al., “A Bright Millisecond Radio
Burst of Extragalactic Origin,” Science, 318: 777,
2007
Lunnan, R., et al., “Hydrogen-poor superlumi-
nous supernovae and long-duration gamma-ray
bursts have similar host galaxies,” The Astrophysi-
cal Journal Letters, 787: 138, 2014
Metzger, Brian D., et al., “Millisecond Magnetar
Birth Connects FRB 121102 to Superluminous Su-
pernovae and Long Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts,”
arXiv:1701.02370, 2017
Spitler, Lee R., et al., “Fast radio burst discovered
in the Arecibo pulsar ALFA Survey,” The Astrophys-
ical Journal, 790: 101, 2014
Spitler, Lee R., et al., “A repeating fast radio burst,”
Nature, 531: 202, 2016
Tendulkar, Shriharsh P., et al., “The Host Galaxy
and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst
FRB 121102,” The Astrophysical Journal Letters,
834: 7, 2017
The mystery of FRBs is an interdisciplinary
challenge that can only be solved with the
combined forces of sensitive radio and opti-
cal observatories to support a motley group
of bewildered astronomers.
Shriharsh P. Tendulkar is a postdoctoral fellow at
McGill University. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
April 2017
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