A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance

K W Bannister; A T Deller; C Phillips; J-P Macquart; J X Prochaska; N Tejos; S D Ryder; E M Sadler; R M Shannon; S Simha; C K Day; M McQuinn; F O North-Hickey; S Bhandari; W R Arcus; V N Bennert; J Burchett; M Bouwhuis; R Dodson; R D Ekers; W Farah; C Flynn; C W James; M Kerr; E Lenc; E K Mahony; J O'Meara; S Osłowski; H Qiu; T Treu; V U; T J Bateman; D C-J Bock; R J Bolton; A Brown; J D Bunton; A P Chippendale; F R Cooray; T Cornwell; N Gupta; D B Hayman; M Kesteven; B S Koribalski; A MacLeod; N M McClure-Griffiths; S Neuhold; R P Norris; M A Pilawa; R-Y Qiao; J Reynolds; D N Roxby; T W Shimwell; M A Voronkov; C D Wilson

doi:10.1126/science.aaw5903

A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance

Science. 2019 Aug 9;365(6453):565-570. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw5903. Epub 2019 Jun 27.

Authors

K W Bannister¹, A T Deller², C Phillips³, J-P Macquart⁴, J X Prochaska^{5

6}, N Tejos⁷, S D Ryder⁸, E M Sadler^{3

9}, R M Shannon¹⁰, S Simha⁵, C K Day², M McQuinn¹¹, F O North-Hickey⁴, S Bhandari³, W R Arcus⁴, V N Bennert¹², J Burchett⁷, M Bouwhuis^{3

13}, R Dodson¹⁴, R D Ekers^{3

4}, W Farah², C Flynn², C W James⁴, M Kerr¹⁵, E Lenc³, E K Mahony³, J O'Meara¹⁶, S Osłowski², H Qiu^{3

9}, T Treu¹⁷, V U¹⁸, T J Bateman⁹, D C-J Bock³, R J Bolton³, A Brown³, J D Bunton³, A P Chippendale³, F R Cooray³, T Cornwell¹⁹, N Gupta²⁰, D B Hayman³, M Kesteven³, B S Koribalski³, A MacLeod³, N M McClure-Griffiths²¹, S Neuhold³, R P Norris^{3

22}, M A Pilawa³, R-Y Qiao³, J Reynolds³, D N Roxby³, T W Shimwell²³, M A Voronkov³, C D Wilson³

Affiliations

¹ Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Telescope National Facility, P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia. keith.bannister@csiro.au rshannon@swin.edu.au.
² Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.
³ Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Telescope National Facility, P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia.
⁴ International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia.
⁵ University of California Observatories-Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
⁶ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa 277-8583, Japan.
⁷ Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla 4059, Valparaíso, Chile.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia.
⁹ Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
¹⁰ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia. keith.bannister@csiro.au rshannon@swin.edu.au.
¹¹ Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
¹² Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA.
¹³ Nikhef, Science Park, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
¹⁴ International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
¹⁵ Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
¹⁶ W. M. Keck Observatory, Waimea, HI 96743, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
¹⁹ Tim Cornwell Consulting, 17 Elgan Crescent, Sandbach CW11 1LD, UK.
²⁰ Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, India.
²¹ Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia.
²² Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, NSW 2751, Australia.
²³ ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, Netherlands.

PMID: 31249136
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw5903

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio emissions from distant astronomical sources. Some are known to repeat, but most are single bursts. Nonrepeating FRB observations have had insufficient positional accuracy to localize them to an individual host galaxy. We report the interferometric localization of the single-pulse FRB 180924 to a position 4 kiloparsecs from the center of a luminous galaxy at redshift 0.3214. The burst has not been observed to repeat. The properties of the burst and its host are markedly different from those of the only other accurately localized FRB source. The integrated electron column density along the line of sight closely matches models of the intergalactic medium, indicating that some FRBs are clean probes of the baryonic component of the cosmic web.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't