A Population of Fast Radio Bursts at Cosmological Distances

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of four millisecond-duration fast radio bursts at cosmological distances, providing insights into their origins and potential for studying the Universe's baryonic content.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of fast radio bursts at cosmological distances and discusses their implications for astrophysics and cosmology.

Findings

Bursts are of celestial origin, not terrestrial.

Distances up to 3 gigaparsecs suggest cosmological scale.

No associated X-ray or gamma-ray signals were found.

Abstract

Searches for transient astrophysical sources often reveal unexpected classes of objects that are useful physical laboratories. In a recent survey for pulsars and fast transients we have uncovered four millisecond-duration radio transients all more than 40{\deg} from the Galactic plane. The bursts' properties indicate that they are of celestial rather than terrestrial origin. Host galaxy and intergalactic medium models suggest that they have cosmological redshifts of 0.5 to 1, and distances of up to 3 gigaparsecs. No temporally coincident x- or gamma-ray signature was identified in association with the bursts. Characterization of the source population and identification of host galaxies offers an opportunity to determine the baryonic content of the Universe.