GBT24A-055

Monitoring the active repeater FRB 20190520B

Abstract

FRB 20190520B is a highly active repeater discovered that stands out from the rest of the FRB population. It not only has the highest dispersion measure (DM) from its host galaxy but is also only the second FRB associated with an unresolved persistent radio source. Even more importantly, our previous GBT observations detected highly polarised bursts at high frequencies (>4GHz), which led to the discovery of extreme rotation measure (RM) sign flipping and frequency-dependent polarisation of FRB 20190520B. These observations revealed a dense, highly magnetized, and turbulent local environment of this source. Here we propose to continue our fortnightly monitoring of FRB 20190520B with GBT using its C-band or X-band receiver. The main goal is to detect more bursts at high frequencies and study the long-term evolution of RM and depolarization, both of which could shed critical light on the origin of repeating FRBs. By combing the proposed GBT observation with our FAST and Parkes programs, we will also carry out the first study of wide-band emission properties of this unique source and search for periodic activities.

Investigators

Name Institution
Ryan Lynch Green Bank Observatory; West Virginia University
Jintao Xie Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, CAS
Yi Feng National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Yongkun Zhang National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Chenhui Niu National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Shen Wang National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Yuan-Pei Yang Yunnan University
Pei Wang National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Shi Dai * Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Di Li National Astronomical Observatories, CAS; Space Science Institute

* indicates the PI