An extreme magneto-ionic environment associated with the fast radio burst source FRB 121102
| Autor: | Michilli, D., Seymour, A., Hessels, J. W. T., Spitler, L. G., Gajjar, V., Archibald, A. M., Bower, G. C., Chatterjee, S., Cordes, J. M., Gourdji, K., Heald, G. H., Kaspi, V. M., Law, C. J., Sobey, C., Adams, E. A. K., Bassa, C. G., Bogdanov, S., Brinkman, C., Demorest, P., Fernandez, F., Hellbourg, G., Lazio, T. J. W., Lynch, R. S., Maddox, N., Marcote, B., McLaughlin, M. A., Paragi, Z., Ransom, S. M., Scholz, P., Siemion, A. P. V., Tendulkar, S. P., Van Rooy, P., Wharton, R. S., Whitlow, D. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1038/nature25149 |
| Popis: | Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration, extragalactic radio flashes of unknown physical origin. FRB 121102, the only known repeating FRB source, has been localized to a star-forming region in a dwarf galaxy at redshift z = 0.193, and is spatially coincident with a compact, persistent radio source. The origin of the bursts, the nature of the persistent source, and the properties of the local environment are still debated. Here we present bursts that show ~100% linearly polarized emission at a very high and variable Faraday rotation measure in the source frame: RM_src = +1.46 x 10^5 rad m^-2 and +1.33 x 10^5 rad m^-2 at epochs separated by 7 months, in addition to narrow (< 30 mus) temporal structure. The large and variable rotation measure demonstrates that FRB 121102 is in an extreme and dynamic magneto-ionic environment, while the short burst durations argue for a neutron star origin. Such large rotation measures have, until now, only been observed in the vicinities of massive black holes (M_BH > 10^4 MSun). Indeed, the properties of the persistent radio source are compatible with those of a low-luminosity, accreting massive black hole. The bursts may thus come from a neutron star in such an environment. However, the observed properties may also be explainable in other models, such as a highly magnetized wind nebula or supernova remnant surrounding a young neutron star. Comment: Published in Nature: DOI: 10.1038/nature25149 |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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