A Fast Transient Backend to Detect FRBs with the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array

The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder array is a radio interferometer array consisting of 16 six meter dish antennas. The original digital backend integration time is at the seconds level, designed for HI intensity mapping experiment. A new digital backend with millisecond response is added to enable it to search for fast radio burst (FRB) during its observations. The design and calibration of this backend, and the real time search pipeline for it are described in this paper. It is capable of forming 16 digital beams for each linear polarisation, covering an area of 19.6 square degrees. The search pipeline is capable of searching for, recording and classifying FRBs automatically in real time. In commissioning, we succeeded in capturing the signal pulses from the pulsars PSR B0329+54 and B2021+51.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, RAA accepte

Temporal and Spectral Properties of the Persistent Radio Source Associated with FRB 20190520B with the VLA

Among more than 800 known fast radio bursts (FRBs), only two, namely FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B, are confirmed to be associated with a persistent radio sources (PRS). Here we report evidence of apparent temporal variability in the PRS associated with the bursting FRB 20190520B based on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations taken in 2020 and 2021. Based on the analysis of epoch-to-epoch variability of the PRS at L, S, C, and X band in 1-12 GHz, we detected not only overall marginal variability but also a likely radio flux decrease ($\sim$ 3.2 $\sigma$) between the observations taken in 2020 and 2021 at 3 GHz. Assuming no spectral variation in the PRS during these observations, we found the evidence for an overall broadband radio flux decrease by about 20 percent between the 2020 and the 2021 observations, suggesting that the PRS probably evolves on the yearly time scale. If we attribute the marginal variability at 3 GHz as intrinsic or due to scintillation, the size of potential variable component of the PRS is constrained to be sub-parsec. On the other hand, the size of the PRS can be also constrained to be larger than about 0.22 parsec from the averaged radio spectrum and the integrated radio luminosity in the 1-12 GHz band based on equipartition and self-absorption arguments. We discuss potential origins of the PRS and suggest that an accreting compact object origin might be able to explain the PRS's temporal and spectral properties. Confirmation of variability or flux decline of the PRS would be critical to our understanding of the PRS and its relation to the bursting source.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

CRAFTS for Fast Radio Bursts : extending the dispersion-fluence relation with new FRBs detected by FAST

We report three new FRBs discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), namely FRB 181017.J0036+11, FRB 181118, and FRB 181130, through the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS). Together with FRB 181123, which was reported earlier, all four FAST-discovered FRBs share the same characteristics of low fluence (1000 pc cm(-3)), consistent with the anticorrelation between DM and fluence of the entire FRB population. FRB 181118 and FRB 181130 exhibit band-limited features. FRB 181130 is prominently scattered (tau(s) 8 ms) at 1.25 GHz. FRB 181017.J0036+11 has full-bandwidth emission with a fluence of 0.042 Jy ms, which is one of the faintest FRB sources detected so far. CRAFTS has started to build a new sample of FRBs that fills the region for more distant and fainter FRBs in the fluence-DME diagram, previously out of reach of other surveys. The implied all-sky event rate of FRBs is 1.24(-0.90)(+1.94) x 5 sky(-1) day(-1) at the 95% confidence interval above 0.0146 Jy ms. We also demonstrate here that the probability density function of CRAFTS FRB detections is sensitive to the assumed intrinsic FRB luminosity function and cosmological evolution, which may be further constrained with more discoveries

Atypical radio pulsations from magnetar SGR 1935+2154

Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, frequently powering high-energy activity in X-rays. Pulsed radio emission following some X-ray outbursts have been detected, albeit its physical origin is unclear. It has long been speculated that the origin of magnetars' radio signals is different from those from canonical pulsars, although convincing evidence is still lacking. Five months after magnetar SGR 1935+2154's X-ray outburst and its associated Fast Radio Burst (FRB) 20200428, a radio pulsar phase was discovered. Here we report the discovery of X-ray spectral hardening associated with the emergence of periodic radio pulsations from SGR 1935+2154 and a detailed analysis of the properties of the radio pulses. The complex radio pulse morphology, which contains both narrow-band emission and frequency drifts, has not been seen before in other magnetars, but is similar to those of repeating FRBs - even though the luminosities are many orders of magnitude different. The observations suggest that radio emission originates from the outer magnetosphere of the magnetar, and the surface heating due to the bombardment of inward-going particles from the radio emission region is responsible for the observed X-ray spectral hardening.Comment: 47 pages, 11 figure

A repeating fast radio burst associated with a persistent radio source

The dispersive sweep of fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been used to probe the ionized baryon content of the intergalactic medium1, which is assumed to dominate the total extragalactic dispersion. Although the host-galaxy contributions to the dispersion measure appear to be small for most FRBs2, in at least one case there is evidence for an extreme magneto-ionic local environment3,4 and a compact persistent radio source5. Here we report the detection and localization of the repeating FRB 20190520B, which is co-located with a compact, persistent radio source and associated with a dwarf host galaxy of high specific-star-formation rate at a redshift of 0.241 ± 0.001. The estimated host-galaxy dispersion measure of approximately 903−111+72 parsecs per cubic centimetre, which is nearly an order of magnitude higher than the average of FRB host galaxies2,6, far exceeds the dispersion-measure contribution of the intergalactic medium. Caution is thus warranted in inferring redshifts for FRBs without accurate host-galaxy identifications

A Fast Radio Burst Discovered in FAST Drift Scan Survey

We report the discovery of a highly dispersed fast radio burst (FRB), FRB 181123, from an analysis of ~1500 hr of drift scan survey data taken using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The pulse has three distinct emission components, which vary with frequency across our 1.0–1.5 GHz observing band. We measure the peak flux density to be... (See full abstract in article)