Sub-second periodicity in a fast radio burst
The CHIME/FRB Collaboration, Bridget C. Andersen, Kevin Bandura, Mohit, Bhardwaj, P. J. Boyle, Charanjot Brar, Daniela Breitman, Tomas Cassanelli,, Shami Chatterjee, Pragya Chawla, Jean-Fran\c{c}ois Cliche, Davor Cubranic,, Alice P. Curtin, Meiling Deng, Matt Dobbs
TL;DR
This paper reports the discovery of a fast radio burst with a 216.8 ms periodic separation between components, strongly indicating a neutron-star origin and favoring magnetospheric emission models.
Contribution
It presents the first detection of a periodic separation in an FRB, providing new insights into the emission mechanism and progenitor nature.
Findings
Detected a 216.8 ms periodic separation in FRB 20191221A
Supports neutron-star origin of the FRB
Favors magnetospheric emission models
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration flashes of radio waves that are visible at distances of billions of light-years. The nature of their progenitors and their emission mechanism remain open astrophysical questions. Here we report the detection of the multi-component FRB 20191221A and the identification of a periodic separation of 216.8(1) ms between its components with a significance of 6.5 sigmas. The long (~3 s) duration and nine or more components forming the pulse profile make this source an outlier in the FRB population. Such short periodicity provides strong evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event. Moreover, our detection favours emission arising from the neutron-star magnetosphere, as opposed to emission regions located further away from the star, as predicted by some models.
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