Fast radio burst repeaters produced via Kozai-Lidov feeding of neutron stars in binary systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where Kozai-Lidov perturbations in binary neutron star systems trigger asteroid infalls, producing fast radio bursts, with specific predictions about their repetition and observational signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism linking binary system dynamics to FRB production and predicts observable features and evolution of repeaters and non-repeaters.

Findings

A few percent of binary neutron star systems can produce observed FRB rates.

Wide and close orbits lead to non-repeating and repeating FRB sources, respectively.

Most repeaters should cease repeating after 10 years to a few decades.

Abstract

Neutron stars are likely surrounded by gas, debris, and asteroid belts. Kozai-Lidov perturbations, induced by a distant, but gravitationally bound companion, can trigger the infall of such orbiting bodies onto a central compact object. These effects could lead to the emission of fast radio bursts (FRBs), for example by asteroid-induced magnetic wake fields in the wind of the compact object. A few percent of binary neutron star systems in the Universe, such as neutron star-main sequence star, neutron star-white dwarf, double neutron star, and neutron star-black hole systems, can account for the observed non-repeating FRB rates. More remarkably, we find that wide and close companion orbits lead to non-repeating and repeating sources, respectively, and they allow for one to compute a ratio between repeating and non-repeating sources of a few percent, which is in close agreement with the observations. Three major predictions can be made from our scenario, which can be tested in the coming years: 1) most repeaters should stop repeating after a period between 10 years to a few decades, as their asteroid belts become depleted; 2) some non-repeaters could occasionally repeat, if we hit the short period tail of the FRB period distribution; and 3) series of sub-Jansky level short radio bursts could be observed as electromagnetic counterparts of the mergers of binary neutron star systems.