# On the Use of Fast Radio Burst Dispersion Measures as Distance Measures

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of using fast radio burst dispersion measures as a new cosmological distance indicator, analyzing the challenges and systematics involved.

## Contribution

It provides a quantitative assessment of the systematic control required for FRBs to serve as reliable cosmological distance probes.

## Key findings

- Systematic uncertainties must be tightly controlled for FRBs to be effective distance measures.
- The methodology can also be applied to map electron density fluctuations.
- Potential to probe helium reionization through dispersion measures.

## Abstract

Fast radio bursts appear to be cosmological signals whose frequency-time structure provides a dispersion measure. The dispersion measure is a convolution of the cosmic distance element and the electron density, and contains the possibility of using these events as new cosmological distance measures. We explore the challenges of extracting the distance in a robust manner, and give quantitative estimates for the systematics control needed for fast radio bursts to become a competitive distance probe. The methodology can also be applied to assessing their use for mapping electron density fluctuations or helium reionization.