Precession and Jitter in FRB 180916B

TL;DR

This paper analyzes CHIME/FRB data of FRB 180916B, confirming its periodicity and suggesting that the observed phase window jitter is due to accretion disc precession and jittering, similar to known astrophysical systems.

Contribution

It provides a new analysis of FRB 180916B's periodicity and proposes a model involving accretion disc precession and jittering to explain the phase window behavior.

Findings

Confirmed the modulation period and phase window of FRB 180916B.

Estimated the disc axis jitter angle to be about 0.14 of the inclination.

Linked the jittering behavior to accretion disc precession similar to other astrophysical systems.

Abstract

Recent CHIME/FRB observations of the periodic repeating FRB 180916B have produced a homogeneous sample of 44 bursts. These permit a redetermination of the modulation period and phase window, in agreement with earlier results. If the periodicity results from the precession of an accretion disc, in analogy with those of Her X-1, SS 433, and many other superorbital periods, the width of the observable phase window indicates that the disc axis jitters by an angle of about 0.14 of the inclination angle, similar to the ratio of 0.14 in the well-observed jittering jet source SS 433.