GBT24A-415

Observation of an FRB skewering the M31 halo

Abstract

In the past few years, fast radio burst (FRB) studies have been revolutionized primarily through two routes: via their localization to a host galaxy (approximately 40 sources so far), or via studies of their line-of-sight properties to reveal information about local FRB environments, the intergalactic medium, or even probe the halos of galaxies intersected along the line of sight to the FRB. The propagation properties of FRBs such as dispersion, scattering and Faraday rotation can probe directly the integral electron densities, scattering screen distributions, and integral magnetic fields along the line-of-sight, rendering FRBs excellent probes of otherwise diffuse and nearly "invisible" media. If one localizes an FRB to a distant galaxy, however that line-of-sight passes within a few minutes to degrees of a lower-redshift galaxy, the contributions to dispersion, polarization, and scattering from the intervening halo contribute to the FRB signal. In this observation, we follow-up an FRB, initially detected and localized using the Realfast system at the VLA, whose line-of-sight intersects the M31 halo and gives us a unique opportunity to constrain the halo properties of M31.

Investigators

Name	Institution
RESHMA ANNA THOMAS *	West Virginia University
Sarah Spolaor	West Virginia University
Casey Law	California Institute of Technology
Paul Demorest	National Radio Astronomy Observatory
liam connor	Toronto, University of; California Institute of Technology
Calvin Dear	West Virginia University
Jordan Stanley	West Virginia University

* indicates the PI