The discovery of a rotating radio transient J1918$-$0449 with intriguing emission properties with the five hundred meter aperture spherical radio telescope

TL;DR

This paper reports the first detection and detailed analysis of a rotating radio transient (RRAT) J1918-0449 using FAST, revealing its emission properties, burst rate, energy distribution, and subpulse drifting, contributing new insights into RRAT phenomena.

Contribution

First detailed single pulse analysis of RRAT J1918-0449 with FAST, uncovering its emission characteristics and subpulse drifting, advancing understanding of RRATs.

Findings

83 bursts detected over 1.8 hours

Pulse energy follows a power-law distribution with index -3.1

Mean burst rate of one burst every 66 seconds

Abstract

In this study, we report on a detailed single pulse analysis of the radio emission from a rotating radio transient (RRAT) J1918$-$0449 which is the first RRAT discovered with the five hundred meter aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST). The sensitive observations were carried out on 30 April 2021 using the FAST with a central frequency of 1250 MHz and a short time resolution of 49.152 $\mu$s, which forms a reliable basis to probe single pulse emission properties in detail. The source was successively observed for around 2 hours. A total of 83 dispersed bursts with significance above 6$\sigma$ are detected over 1.8 hours. The source's DM and rotational period are determined to be 116.1$\pm$0.4 \pcm \ and 2479.21$\pm$0.03 ms, respectively. The share of registered pulses from the total number of observed period is 3.12\%. No underlying emission is detected in the averaged off pulse profile. For bursts with fluence larger than 10 Jy ms, the pulse energy follows a power-law distribution with an index of $-3.1\pm0.4$, suggesting the existence of bright pulse emission. We find that the distribution of time between subsequent pulses is consistent with a stationary Poisson process and find no evidence of clustering over the 1.8 h observations, giving a mean burst rate of one burst every 66 s. Close inspection of the detected bright pulses reveals that 21 pulses exhibit well-defined quasi-periodicities. The subpulse drifting is present in non-successive rotations with periodicity of $2.51\pm0.06$ periods. Finally, possible physical mechanisms are discussed.