Deep Synoptic Array Science: Implications of Faraday Rotation Measures of Localized Fast Radio Bursts

TL;DR

This study analyzes Faraday rotation measures of localized fast radio bursts to understand the magnetic fields in their host galaxies, revealing ISM dominance and higher magnetic fields compared to the Milky Way.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the origin of FRB RMs, highlighting the role of host galaxy ISM and magnetic field strengths, with implications for FRB environments.

Findings

Extragalactic RMs often dominated by host-galaxy ISM

Correlation between host-DM and host-RM in FRBs

Higher ISM magnetic fields in FRB hosts compared to the Milky Way

Abstract

Faraday rotation measures (RMs) of fast radio bursts (FRBs) offer the prospect of directly measuring extragalactic magnetic fields. We present an analysis of the RMs of ten as yet non-repeating FRBs detected and localized to host galaxies by the 110-antenna Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-110). We combine this sample with published RMs of 15 localized FRBs, nine of which are repeating sources. For each FRB in the combined sample, we estimate the host-galaxy dispersion measure (DM) contributions and extragalactic RM. We find compelling evidence that the extragalactic components of FRB RMs are often dominated by contributions from the host-galaxy interstellar medium (ISM). Specifically, we find that both repeating and as yet non-repeating FRBs show a correlation between the host-DM and host-RM in the rest frame, and we find an anti-correlation between extragalactic RM (in the observer frame) and redshift for non-repeaters, as expected if the magnetized plasma is in the host galaxy. Important exceptions to the ISM origin include a dense, magnetized circum-burst medium in some repeating FRBs, and the intra-cluster medium (ICM) of host or intervening galaxy clusters. We find that the estimated ISM magnetic-field strengths, $\bar{B}_{||}$, are characteristically larger than those inferred from Galactic radio pulsars. This suggests either increased ISM magnetization in FRB hosts in comparison with the Milky Way, or that FRBs preferentially reside in regions of increased magnetic-field strength within their hosts.