A Catalog of Local Universe Fast Radio Bursts from CHIME/FRB and the KKO Outrigger

TL;DR

This paper presents the first catalog of localized FRB host galaxies from CHIME/FRB Outriggers, including spectroscopic redshifts, associations with galaxy clusters, and a potential nearby persistent radio source, enhancing low-redshift FRB statistics.

Contribution

It provides a new, uniformly selected catalog of 81 localized FRBs with host galaxy identifications and spectroscopic redshifts, including several associations with galaxy clusters and a candidate nearby PRS.

Findings

Securely identified 21 new FRB host galaxies.

Spectroscopic redshifts obtained for 19 systems, 15 newly measured.

Discovery of a nearby FRB with a luminous persistent radio source.

Abstract

We present the first catalog of fast radio burst (FRB) host galaxies from CHIME/FRB Outriggers, selected uniformly in the radio and the optical by localizing 81 new bursts to 2'' x ~60'' accuracy using CHIME and the KKO Outrigger, located 66 km from CHIME. Of the 81 localized bursts, we use the Probabilistic Association of Transients to their Hosts (PATH) algorithm to securely identify 21 new FRB host galaxies, and compile spectroscopic redshifts for 19 systems, 15 of which are newly obtained via spectroscopic observations. The most nearby source is FRB 20231229A, at a distance of 90 Mpc. One burst in our sample is from a previously reported repeating source in a galaxy merger (FRB 20190303A). Three new FRB host galaxies (FRBs 20230203A, 20230703A, and 20231206A) are found towards X-ray and optically selected galaxy clusters, potentially doubling the sample of known galaxy cluster FRBs. A search for radio counterparts reveals that FRB 20231128A is associated with a luminous persistent radio source (PRS) candidate with high significance ($P_{cc} \sim 10^{-2}$). If its compactness is confirmed, it would be the nearest known compact PRS at $z = 0.1079$. Our catalog significantly increases the statistics of the Macquart relation at low redshifts ($z < 0.2$). In the near future, the completed CHIME/FRB Outriggers array will produce hundreds of FRBs localized with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). This will significantly expand the known sample and pave the way for future telescopes relying on VLBI for FRB localization.