Sub-arcminute localization of 13 repeating fast radio bursts detected by CHIME/FRB

TL;DR

This paper presents highly precise localizations of thirteen repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) discovered by CHIME/FRB, enabling identification of their host galaxies and insights into their diverse environments.

Contribution

The study introduces interferometric baseband localization techniques that significantly improve FRB position accuracy, facilitating host galaxy identification and environmental analysis.

Findings

Two FRBs localized to specific host galaxies at z~0.064-0.068

Host galaxies exhibit diverse properties, indicating varied FRB progenitor environments

Localization uncertainty reduced by over three orders of magnitude

Abstract

We report on improved sky localizations of thirteen repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) discovered by CHIME/FRB via the use of interferometric techniques on channelized voltages from the telescope. These so-called 'baseband localizations' improve the localization uncertainty area presented in past studies by more than three orders of magnitude. The improved localization regions are provided for the full sample of FRBs to enable follow-up studies. The localization uncertainties, together with limits on the source distances from their dispersion measures (DMs), allow us to identify likely host galaxies for two of the FRB sources. FRB 20180814A lives in a massive passive red spiral at z~0.068 with very little indication of star formation, while FRB 20190303A resides in a merging pair of spiral galaxies at z~0.064 undergoing significant star formation. These galaxies show very different characteristics, further confirming the presence of FRB progenitors in a variety of environments even among the repeating sub-class.