# FRB as Pulsar Lightning

## TL;DR

This paper proposes that Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are analogous to lightning in planetary atmospheres, occurring in neutron star magnetospheres with vacuum gaps, and introduces the concept of 'electrars' powered by electrostatic energy release.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking FRBs to lightning phenomena and suggests they are powered by electrostatic energy, expanding the understanding of FRB energetics and origins.

## Key findings

- FRBs share phenomenological similarities with lightning.
- FRBs may occur in neutron star magnetospheres with vacuum gaps.
- Energetic constraints imply shorter spin-down lifetimes for more energetic FRBs.

## Abstract

There are striking phenomenological similarities between Fast Radio Bursts and lightning in the Earth's and planetary atmospheres. Both have very low duty factors, $\lesssim 10^{-8}$--$10^{-5}$ for FRB and (very roughly) $\sim 10^{-4}$ for the main return strokes in an active thundercloud. Lightning occurs in an electrified insulating atmosphere when a conducting path is created by and permits current flow. FRB may occur in neutron star magnetospheres whose plasma is believed to be divided by vacuum gaps. Vacuum is a perfect insulator unless electric fields are sufficient for electron-positron pair production by curvature radiation, a high-energy analogue of electrostatic breakdown in an insulating gas. FRB may be "electrars" powered by the release of stored electrostatic energy, counterparts to Soft Gamma Repeaters powered by the release of stored magnetostatic energy (magnetars). This frees pulsar FRB models from the constraint that their power not exceed the instantaneous spin-down power. Energetic constraints imply that the sources of more energetic FRB have shorter spin-down lifetimes, perhaps shorter than the three years over which FRB 121102 has been observed to repeat.