Collision between Neutron Stars and Asteroids as a Mechanism for Fast Radio Bursts

TL;DR

This paper proposes that fast radio bursts are caused by collisions between neutron stars and asteroids, explaining their short duration, high intensity, and high occurrence rate, and linking them to other neutron star collision phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model attributing fast radio bursts to neutron star-asteroid collisions, accounting for their observed properties and rates.

Findings

The model explains the millisecond duration of FRBs.

It accounts for the high event rate of FRBs.

Links FRBs to neutron star-small body collision events.

Abstract

As a new kind of radio transient sources detected at $\sim 1.4$ GHz, fast radio bursts are specially characterized by their short durations and high intensities. Although only ten events are detected so far, fast radio bursts may actually frequently happen at a rate of $\sim 10^{3}$ --- $10^4~\rm{sky}^{-1}~\rm{day}^{-1}$. We suggest that fast radio bursts can be produced by the collisions between neutron stars and asteroids. This model can naturally explain the millisecond duration of fast radio bursts. The energetics and event rate can also be safely accounted for. Fast radio bursts thus may be one side of the multifaces of the neutron star-small body collision events, which are previously expected to lead to X-ray/gamma-ray bursts or glitch/anti-glitches.