All sky archival search for FRB high energy counterparts with Swift and Fermi

TL;DR

This study searches for high-energy counterparts to fast radio bursts by analyzing spatial correlations with gamma-ray bursts from Swift and Fermi, finding no significant associations and estimating less than 4% of FRBs are linked to GRBs.

Contribution

It provides the first systematic search for spatial correlations between FRBs and GRBs using Swift and Fermi data, establishing upper limits on their association.

Findings

No significant FRB-GRB correlations found.

Less than 4% of FRBs are associated with GRBs.

Methodology accounts for instrumental anisotropies.

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio signals from unknown cosmic origin. Many models associate FRBs with high-energy astrophysical objects such as magnetars. In this attempt to find counterparts to FRBs, we explore gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from the Swift and Fermi missions. We first search for spatial correlations between FRB and GRB populations as a whole and then search for a one-by-one correlation between each of the FRBs and GRBs investigated. Temporal coincidences are not considered. To evaluate the significance of any correlation found, we generate background realizations that take into account instrumentally induced anisotropies in the distribution of the sources. Neither study yields any significant counterpart detection. We estimate that less than 4\% of the FRBs are associated with GRBs in the studied samples