# The prevalence of repeating fast radio bursts

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes the occurrence and nature of fast radio bursts, suggesting most originate from sources capable of emitting multiple bursts over their lifetimes, based on recent detection rates and dispersion measure data.

## Contribution

It provides evidence that most fast radio bursts are from sources that emit multiple bursts, challenging the idea they are predominantly one-off events.

## Key findings

- The volumetric rate of non-repeating FRBs exceeds that of cataclysmic progenitors.
- Most FRBs likely originate from sources capable of multiple emissions.
- Detection of low dispersion measure bursts supports multiple-burst source models.

## Abstract

Fast radio bursts are extragalactic, sub-millisecond radio impulses of unknown origin [1,2]. Their dispersion measures, which quantify the observed frequency-dependent dispersive delays in terms of free-electron column densities, significantly exceed predictions from models [3] of the Milky Way interstellar medium. The excess dispersions are likely accrued as fast radio bursts propagate through their host galaxies, gaseous galactic halos and the intergalactic medium [4,5]. Despite extensive follow-up observations of the published sample of 72 burst sources [6], only two are observed to repeat [7,8], and it is unknown whether or not the remainder are truly one-off events. Here I show that the volumetric occurrence rate of so far non-repeating fast radio bursts likely exceeds the rates of candidate cataclysmic progenitor events, and also likely exceeds the birth rates of candidate compact-object sources. This analysis is based on the high detection rate of bursts with low dispersion measures by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment [9]. Within the existing suite of astrophysical scenarios for fast radio burst progenitors, I conclude that most observed cases originate from sources that emit several bursts over their lifetimes.