An accreting stellar binary model for active periodic fast radio bursts

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where an accreting stellar binary system explains the periodic activity of fast radio bursts, linking shock interactions and magnetic blobs to observed FRB properties and potential multi-wavelength counterparts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel accreting stellar binary model that accounts for the periodicity, activity, and persistent radio sources associated with certain FRBs.

Findings

The model can produce highly active, long-lifetime FRBs.

It explains the periodicity and duty cycle of FRBs 180916 and 121102.

The system may generate observable multi-wavelength counterparts.

Abstract

In this work, we propose an accreting stellar binary model for understanding the active periodic fast radio bursts (FRBs). The system consists of a stellar compact object (CO) and a donor star (DS) companion in an eccentric orbit, where the DS fills its own Roche lobe near the periastron. The CO accretes the material from the DS and then drive relativistic magnetic blobs. The interaction between the magnetic blobs and the stellar wind of the DS produces a pair of shocks. We find that both of the reverse shock and the forward shock are likely to produce FRBs via synchrotron maser mechanism. We show that this system can in principle sufficiently produce highly active FRBs with a long lifetime, and also can naturally explain the periodicity and the duty cycle of the activity as appeared in FRBs 180916 and 121102. The radio nebula excited by the long-term injection of magnetic blobs into the surrounding environment may account for the associated persistent radio source. In addiction, we discuss the possible multi-wavelength counterparts of FRB 180916 in the context of this model. Finally, we encourage the search for FRBs in the ultraluminous X-ray sources.