On the periodicity of repeating fast radio bursts
by
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/N6F-N600 - Lecture Room
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute
Host: Fabo Feng
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Abstract:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are Fierce radio flashes from the deep sky. Abundant observations have indicated that highly magnetized neutron stars might be involved in these energetic bursts, but the underlying trigger mechanism is still unknown. Especially, the widely expected periodicity connected to the spin of the central engine has never been discovered, which leads to further debates on the nature of FRBs. Recently, we found a 1.7 s period in the repeating source of FRB 20201124A. This is an active repeater, from which more than 2800 FRBs have been observed on a total of 49 days. The phase-folding method is adopted to analyze the bursts on each day separately. While no periodical signal is found for the bursts on most days, a clear periodicity does appear on two specific days, i.e. a period of 1.706015(2) s on MJD 59310, and a slightly larger period of 1.707972(1) s on MJD 59347. A period derivative of 6.14E-10 s/s can be derived from these two periods, which further implies a surface magnetic field strength of 1.04E15 G and a spin-down age of only 44 years for the central engine. It is thus concluded that FRB 20201124A should be associated with a young magnetar.
Biography:
Yong-Feng Huang is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at Nanjing University, and has served as the Vice Dean of the School of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Nanjing University. He has published over 150 SCI research papers in international academic journals, and has won the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, the first prize of the Ministry of Education's Natural Science Award, and the second prize of the National Natural Science Award. He has guided 10 doctoral graduates and over ten master's graduates.
