FRB 121102: a star quake-induced repeater?

TL;DR

This paper suggests that the repeating FRB 121102 may originate from starquakes of a pulsar, based on its energy and waiting time distributions resembling earthquake patterns, indicating a possible link to magnetar or strangeon star activities.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that FRB 121102's burst patterns are similar to earthquakes, proposing starquakes as a potential origin, which is a novel perspective in FRB research.

Findings

Burst energy distribution follows a power law similar to earthquakes.

Waiting times between bursts have a Gaussian distribution.

Supports starquake origin hypothesis for repeating FRBs.

Abstract

Since its initial discovery, the Fast radio burst (FRB) FRB 121102 has been found to be repeating with millisecond-duration pulses. Very recently, 15 new bursts were detected by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) during its continous monitoring observations. In this letter, we show that the burst energy distribution has a power law form which is very similar to the Gutenberg-Richter law of earthquakes. In addition, the waiting time of the burst has a Gaussian distribution, which is also a distinctive feature of earthquakes. These findings suggest that the repeating FRB pulses may originate from the starquakes of a pulsar. Noting that the soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) also exhibit such distributions, the FRB could be powered by some mechanism associated with the SGRs, including crustal acitivity of a magnetar, solidification-induced stresss of a young strangeon star, and oscillation-drivern magnetic activities of a slowly rotating pulsar. These conjectures could be tested with more repeating samples.