The Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102 as Seen on Milliarcsecond Angular Scales

TL;DR

This study uses very-long-baseline interferometry to precisely localize FRB 121102 and its persistent radio source, revealing their co-location and characteristics that support models involving a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus or a young neutron star.

Contribution

It provides the first simultaneous milliarcsecond localization of both the bursts and persistent emission, establishing their physical association and constraining their size and scattering properties.

Findings

Bursts and persistent source are co-located within 40pc.

Both exhibit angular broadening consistent with Milky Way scattering.

Persistent source size is constrained to less than 0.7pc.

Abstract

The millisecond-duration radio flashes known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) represent an enigmatic astrophysical phenomenon. Recently, the sub-arcsecond localization (~ 100mas precision) of FRB121102 using the VLA has led to its unambiguous association with persistent radio and optical counterparts, and to the identification of its host galaxy. However, an even more precise localization is needed in order to probe the direct physical relationship between the millisecond bursts themselves and the associated persistent emission. Here we report very-long-baseline radio interferometric observations using the European VLBI Network and the 305-m Arecibo telescope, which simultaneously detect both the bursts and the persistent radio emission at milliarcsecond angular scales and show that they are co-located to within a projected linear separation of < 40pc (< 12mas angular separation, at 95% confidence). We detect consistent angular broadening of the bursts and persistent radio source (~ 2-4mas at 1.7GHz), which are both similar to the expected Milky Way scattering contribution. The persistent radio source has a projected size constrained to be < 0.7pc (< 0.2mas angular extent at 5.0GHz) and a lower limit for the brightness temperature of T_b > 5 x 10^7K. Together, these observations provide strong evidence for a direct physical link between FRB121102 and the compact persistent radio source. We argue that a burst source associated with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus or a young neutron star energizing a supernova remnant are the two scenarios for FRB121102 that best match the observed data.