The Arecibo Fast Radio Burst: Dense Circum-burst Medium

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dense circum-burst medium of FRB121102, concluding it is extragalactic, arising from dense star-forming regions, with implications for FRB origins, detection strategies, and their use as probes of the intergalactic medium.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the spectral index of FRB121102 is caused by a nebula with free-free absorption, supporting an extragalactic origin in dense star-forming regions and refining models of FRB progenitors.

Findings

FRB121102's spectral index is due to a nebula with free-free absorption.

FRBs are likely from hyper-giant magnetar flares in dense star-forming regions.

Searching at higher frequencies (2-5 GHz) is promising for FRB detection.

Abstract

The nature of fast radio bursts (FRB) has been extensively debated. Here we investigate FRB121102, detected at Arecibo telescope and remarkable for its unusually large spectral index. After extensive study we conclude that the spectral index is caused by a nebula with free-free absorption. We find that putative nebula must lie beyond the Milky Way. We conclude that FRBs are of extra-galactic origin and that they arise in dense star-forming regions. The challenge with extra-galactic models is the the high volumetric rate of FRBs. This high rate allows us to eliminate all models of catastrophic stellar deaths. Hyper-giant flares from young magnetars emerge as the most likely progenitors. Some of the consequences are: (i) Intergalactic FRB models can be safely ignored. (ii) The rich ISM environment of young magnetars can result in significant contribution to DM, Rotation Measure (RM) and in some cases to significant free-free optical depth. (iii) The star-forming regions in the host galaxies can contribute significantly to the DM. Including this contribution reduces the inferred distances to FRBs and correspondingly increases the volumetric rate of FRBs (and, in turn, may require that giant flares can also produce FRBs). (iv) FRBs are likely to be suppressed at lower frequencies. Conversely, searching for FRBs at higher frequencies (2-5 GHz) would be attractive. (v) The blast wave which produces the radio emission can undergo rapid deceleration if the circum-burst medium is dense (as maybe the case for FRB121102), leading to X-ray, radio and possibly gamma-ray emission. (vi) Galaxies with high star formation rate host will have a higher FRB rate. However, such FRBs will have differing DMs owing to differing local contributions. (vi) The DM and RM of FRBs will prove to be noisy probes of the intergalactic medium (density, magnetic field) and cosmography.