Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short-duration radio pulses of cosmological origin. Among the most common sources predicted to explain this phenomenon are bright pulses from a class of extremely highly magnetized neutron stars known as magnetars. In 2020, a Galactic magnetar produced an FRB-like burst, allowing researchers to constrain the Galactic magnetar burst rate. We assume that the magnetar burst rate scales with star formation rate and test an important prediction for similar bursts in nearby galaxies. Messier 82 (M82) has a star formation rate 40 times that of the Milky Way, implying that the magnetar burst rate would be quite high. We observed M82 with the 20 meter telescope at the Green Bank Observatory for 28.2 days. We found 291 candidate bursts, but none of those candidates had a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10. An S/N of 10 is required for a candidate burst to be considered an FRB. Additionally, none of the repeating dispersion measures (DMs) we found had enough bursts to constitute a confidence level of 5 sigma. Using these constraints, we determined an upper bound for M82's magnetar burst rate to be 0.035/day. Based on this result, we determined that star formation rate cannot scale with magnetar burst rate in the case of M82.
Recommended Citation
Paine, Susie
(2022)
"Hunting for Fast Radio Bursts from Messier 82: Exploring the FRB--Magnetar Connection,"
Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy: Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/mjpa/vol10/iss1/7