The Impact of the Environment of White Dwarf Mergers on Fast Radio Bursts
Esha Kundu, Lilia Ferrario

TL;DR
This paper explores how the environment around white dwarf mergers influences fast radio bursts, proposing that shock interactions in the merger ejecta can explain observed DM and RM variations over time.
Contribution
It introduces a model linking white dwarf merger environments to FRB properties, highlighting how shock interactions affect dispersion and rotation measures differently from core-collapse scenarios.
Findings
DM increases with time during free expansion phase
RM varies depending on ejecta density profile, decreasing in later phases
Model explains observed DM and RM trends in some FRBs
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient intense radio pulses with duration of milliseconds. Although the first FRB was detected more than a decade ago, the progenitors of these energetic events are not yet known. The currently preferred formation channel involves the formation of a neutron star (NS)/magnetar. While these objects are often the end product of the core-collapse (CC) explosion of massive stars, they could also be the outcome of the merging of two massive white dwarfs. In the merger scenario the ejected material interacts with a constant-density circumbinary medium and creates supersonic shocks. We found that when a radio pulse passes through these shocks the dispersion measure (DM) increases with time during the free expansion phase. The rotation measure (RM) displays a similar trend if the power-law index, , of the outer part of the ejecta is . For the RM…
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