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Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars

Exploring the nature of Fast Radio Bursts with SKA Pathfinders

by Dr. Ines Pastor-Marazuela (University of Manchester, UK)

Wednesday, November 1, 2023 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Hybrid ( AG66 )
https://tifr-res-in.zoom.us/j/98667398035?pwd=WEMxR2RZSUUvV09idkFNTFFxcW1Bdz09 Meeting ID: 986 6739 8035 Passcode: 712277
Description The field of the enigmatic Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) is currently booming. These extragalactic, millisecond-duration radio transients are now discovered in the hundreds, with tens being localised to their host galaxies, and fifty being known to repeat. This begs the question; do we already have enough information to identify what is producing them? Since the detection of a bright radio burst from the galactic SGR 1935+2154, we know some must come from magnetars. However, the dichotomy between one-off and repeating FRBs remains unsolved, and different emission mechanisms could be at play. To establish the progenitors of these mysterious transients, it is fundamental to conduct detailed spectro-temporal analyses and to achieve precise localisations. In this talk, I will present the current state of the FRB field, including how they can be used as cosmological probes, and focus on what we have learned from the SKA Pathfinders Apertif and MeerKAT.
Apertif, installed at the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, carried out an FRB survey between 2019 and 2022, during which we followed up known repeating FRBs, and detected two dozen new ones. MeerTRAP, on the other hand, is an ongoing project that searches for radio transients with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.  When a new bright FRB is detected, the raw voltage data are stored, allowing us to localise FRBs to their host galaxies and to study them at the highest time and frequency resolution.
I will show how we are using these data to infer crucial information about the FRB progenitors and their local environments. Additionally, the complex spectro-temporal structures and high linear polarisation fractions that many bursts show point towards a magnetospheric origin of the emission. Overall, I will detail how these properties help us discern the nature of FRBs.
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