The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Fast radio bursts (FRB) are millisecond-duration radio pulses with apparent extragalactic origins. All but two of the FRBs have been discovered using the Parkes dish, which employs multiple beams formed by an array of feed horns on its...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Institute of Physics Publishing
2016
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23918 |
| _version_ | 1848751285891760128 |
|---|---|
| author | Vedantham, H. Ravi, V. Hallinan, G. Shannon, Ryan |
| author_facet | Vedantham, H. Ravi, V. Hallinan, G. Shannon, Ryan |
| author_sort | Vedantham, H. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Fast radio bursts (FRB) are millisecond-duration radio pulses with apparent extragalactic origins. All but two of the FRBs have been discovered using the Parkes dish, which employs multiple beams formed by an array of feed horns on its focal plane. In this paper, we show that (i) the preponderance of multiple-beam detections and (ii) the detection rates for varying dish diameters can be used to infer the index α of the cumulative fluence distribution function (the logN–logF function: α = 1.5 for a non-evolving population in a Euclidean universe). If all detected FRBs arise from a single progenitor population, multiple-beam FRB detection rates from the Parkes telescope yield the constraint 0.52 < α < 1.0 with 90% confidence. Searches at other facilities with different dish sizes refine the constraint to 0.5 < α < 0.9. Our results favor FRB searches with smaller dishes, because for α < 1 the gain in field of view for a smaller dish is more important than the reduction in sensitivity. Further, our results suggest that (i) FRBs are not standard candles, and (ii) the distribution of distances to the detected FRBs is weighted toward larger distances. If FRBs are extragalactic, these results are consistent with a cosmological population, which would make FRBs excellent probes of the baryonic content and geometry of the universe. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:50:18Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-23918 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:50:18Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Institute of Physics Publishing |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-239182018-03-29T09:06:48Z The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts Vedantham, H. Ravi, V. Hallinan, G. Shannon, Ryan © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Fast radio bursts (FRB) are millisecond-duration radio pulses with apparent extragalactic origins. All but two of the FRBs have been discovered using the Parkes dish, which employs multiple beams formed by an array of feed horns on its focal plane. In this paper, we show that (i) the preponderance of multiple-beam detections and (ii) the detection rates for varying dish diameters can be used to infer the index α of the cumulative fluence distribution function (the logN–logF function: α = 1.5 for a non-evolving population in a Euclidean universe). If all detected FRBs arise from a single progenitor population, multiple-beam FRB detection rates from the Parkes telescope yield the constraint 0.52 < α < 1.0 with 90% confidence. Searches at other facilities with different dish sizes refine the constraint to 0.5 < α < 0.9. Our results favor FRB searches with smaller dishes, because for α < 1 the gain in field of view for a smaller dish is more important than the reduction in sensitivity. Further, our results suggest that (i) FRBs are not standard candles, and (ii) the distribution of distances to the detected FRBs is weighted toward larger distances. If FRBs are extragalactic, these results are consistent with a cosmological population, which would make FRBs excellent probes of the baryonic content and geometry of the universe. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23918 10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/75 Institute of Physics Publishing restricted |
| spellingShingle | Vedantham, H. Ravi, V. Hallinan, G. Shannon, Ryan The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title | The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title_full | The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title_fullStr | The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title_full_unstemmed | The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title_short | The fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| title_sort | fluence and distance distributions of fast radio bursts |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23918 |