Frequency-dependent polarization of repeating fast radio bursts-implications for their origin

Yi Feng; Di Li; Yuan-Pei Yang; Yongkun Zhang; Weiwei Zhu; Bing Zhang; Wenbin Lu; Pei Wang; Shi Dai; Ryan S Lynch; Jumei Yao; Jinchen Jiang; Jiarui Niu; Dejiang Zhou; Heng Xu; Chenchen Miao; Chenhui Niu; Lingqi Meng; Lei Qian; Chao-Wei Tsai; Bojun Wang; Mengyao Xue; Youling Yue; Mao Yuan; Songbo Zhang; Lei Zhang

doi:10.1126/science.abl7759

Frequency-dependent polarization of repeating fast radio bursts-implications for their origin

Science. 2022 Mar 18;375(6586):1266-1270. doi: 10.1126/science.abl7759. Epub 2022 Mar 17.

Authors

Yi Feng^{1

2

3}, Di Li^{1

2

4}, Yuan-Pei Yang⁵, Yongkun Zhang^{1

3}, Weiwei Zhu¹, Bing Zhang^{6

7}, Wenbin Lu⁸, Pei Wang¹, Shi Dai⁹, Ryan S Lynch¹⁰, Jumei Yao¹¹, Jinchen Jiang^{1

12}, Jiarui Niu^{1

3}, Dejiang Zhou^{1

3}, Heng Xu^{1

12}, Chenchen Miao^{1

3}, Chenhui Niu¹, Lingqi Meng^{1

3}, Lei Qian¹, Chao-Wei Tsai¹, Bojun Wang^{1

12}, Mengyao Xue¹, Youling Yue¹, Mao Yuan^{1

3}, Songbo Zhang¹³, Lei Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311121, China.
³ School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences-University of KwaZulu-Natal Computational Astrophysics Centre, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa.
⁵ South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650504, China.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.
⁷ Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.
⁸ Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
⁹ School of Science, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
¹⁰ Green Bank Observatory, Green Bank, WV 24401, USA.
¹¹ Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China.
¹² School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
¹³ Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China.

PMID: 35298266
DOI: 10.1126/science.abl7759

Abstract

The polarization of fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are bright astronomical transient phenomena, contains information about their environments. Using wide-band observations with two telescopes, we report polarization measurements of five repeating FRBs and find a trend of lower polarization at lower frequencies. This behavior is modeled as multipath scattering, characterized by a single parameter, σ_RM, the rotation measure (RM) scatter. Sources with higher σ_RM have higher RM magnitude and scattering time scales. The two sources with the highest σ_RM, FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B, are associated with compact persistent radio sources. These properties indicate a complex environment near the repeating FRBs, such as a supernova remnant or a pulsar wind nebula, consistent with their having arisen from young stellar populations.

Publication types

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