Symmetry Breaking in Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

TL;DR

This paper investigates the temporal symmetry breaking in repeating Fast Radio Bursts, analyzing their millisecond and daily periodic behaviors to understand underlying models and predict future observational signatures.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of models predicting symmetry signs in periodic FRBs and discusses how future observations can distinguish among these models.

Findings

FRBs exhibit millisecond-scale symmetry breaking.

Repetitions occur at frequency-dependent phases of their period.

Future observations can differentiate models based on symmetry predictions.

Abstract

Repeating Fast Radio Bursts show temporal symmetry breaking on millisecond time scales (the "sad trombone"). On a time scale of days the repetitions of FRB 180916B occur at frequency-dependent phases of its 16.3 d period. Some models predict that all such periodic repeating FRB have the same sign of temporal asymmetry, while others predict that sources with both signs are equally abundant. Future observations of other periodically modulated repeating FRB may distinguish among models on this basis.