GBT26A-087

Verifying the binary hypothesis of a repeating fast radio burst

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 to study the long-term evolution of RM and depolarization and to verify the binary hypothesis, 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
Jintao Xie	Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, CAS
Junshuo Zhang	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Jinhuang Cao	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Ryan Lynch	Green Bank Observatory
Yongkun Zhang	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Chenhui Niu	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Shi Dai *	Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Pei Wang	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Shen Wang	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Yuan-Pei Yang	Yunnan University
Di Li	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS; Space Science Institute
Yi Feng	National Astronomical Observatories, CAS

* indicates the PI