A Search for Low-frequency Radio Pulses from Long Gamma-ray Bursts with the Murchison Widefield Array

TL;DR

This study used the Murchison Widefield Array to search for low-frequency radio pulses associated with long gamma-ray bursts, finding candidate signals but likely contaminated by interference, and setting constraints on possible astrophysical emission.

Contribution

First low-frequency, rapid-response search for GRB-associated radio pulses with the MWA, demonstrating its potential for probing GRB central engines.

Findings

Two candidate pulses detected with >6σ significance.

Radio frequency interference likely explains the candidates.

Constraints on radio emission efficiency assuming a magnetar origin.

Abstract

It has been proposed that coherent radio emission could be emitted during or shortly following a gamma-ray burst (GRB). Here we present a low-frequency ($170-200$ MHz) search for radio pulses associated with long-duration GRBs using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The MWA, with its rapid-response system, is capable of performing GRB follow-up observations within approximately $30$ seconds. Our single pulse search, with temporal and spectral resolutions of $100\ \mu$s and $10$ kHz, covers dispersion measures up to $5000$ pc cm$^{-3}$. Two single pulse candidates are identified with significance greater than $6\sigma$, surviving a friends-of-friends analysis. We rule out random fluctuations as their origin at a confidence level of $97\%$ ($2.2\sigma$). We caution that radio frequency interference from digital TV (DTV) is most likely the origin of these pulses since the DTV frequency bands almost cover the entire observing frequency band. If they are astrophysical signals, we estimate the peak flux densities for our pulse candidates of $3.6\pm0.6$ Jy and $10.5\pm1.5$ Jy, with corresponding fluences of $431\pm74$ Jy ms and $211\pm37$ Jy ms, respectively. Based on these observations and the assumption of a magnetar origin for the pulse, we constrain the radio emission efficiency as $\epsilon_{\rm{r}}\sim10^{-3}$ for both candidates, which is consistent with pulsar observations. Our results highlight the promising potential of new-generation radio telescopes like the MWA to probe the central engines of GRBs.