On associating Fast Radio Bursts with afterglows

TL;DR

This paper investigates the association between fast radio bursts (FRBs) and their afterglows, analyzing observational data and providing a statistical framework to determine the likelihood of such associations amid survey constraints.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed analysis of FRB afterglow candidates and introduces a statistical method to assess FRB-afterglow associations considering survey limits.

Findings

The identified afterglow is consistent with an active galactic nucleus.

Limits on the fraction of FRBs with detectable afterglows are established.

A framework for future FRB-afterglow association analysis is proposed.

Abstract

A radio source that faded over six days, with a redshift of $z\approx0.5$ host, has been identified by Keane et al. (2016) as the transient afterglow to a fast radio burst (FRB 150418). We report follow-up radio and optical observations of the afterglow candidate and find a source that is consistent with an active galactic nucleus. If the afterglow candidate is nonetheless a prototypical FRB afterglow, existing slow-transient surveys limit the fraction of FRBs that produce afterglows to 0.25 for afterglows with fractional variation, $m=2|S_1-S_2|/(S_1+S_2)\geq0.7$, and 0.07 for $m\geq1$, at 95% confidence. In anticipation of a barrage of bursts expected from future FRB surveys, we provide a simple framework for statistical association of FRBs with afterglows. Our framework properly accounts for statistical uncertainties, and ensures consistency with limits set by slow-transient surveys.