Publications by authors named "E Petroff"
Article Synopsis
- Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio wave signals from space, occurring over milliseconds, and can be seen from billions of light-years away.
- Researchers detected a specific FRB, named 20191221A, which has a periodic separation of 216.8 milliseconds between its components, indicating a potential link to neutron stars.
- The unique characteristics of this burst, including its longer duration and multiple components, suggest that the emission likely originates from within the magnetosphere of a neutron star rather than from more distant regions.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are flashes of unknown physical origin. The majority of FRBs have been seen only once, although some are known to generate multiple flashes. Many models invoke magnetically powered neutron stars (magnetars) as the source of the emission.
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- Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are powerful, brief astrophysical events that have been detected at various frequencies, but lower-frequency emissions have been challenging to observe.
- One notable FRB, FRB 20180916B, shows a 16.35-day periodicity and emits at frequencies as low as 120 megahertz, with its activity window varying by frequency — narrower and earlier at higher frequencies.
- The findings indicate that lower-frequency emissions can escape their surrounding medium, suggesting that some FRBs are in environments that don't absorb low-frequency signals, contradicting previous theories about absorption affecting FRB periodicity.
The discovery of radio pulsars over a half century ago was a seminal moment in astronomy. It demonstrated the existence of neutron stars, gave a powerful observational tool to study them, and has allowed us to probe strong gravity, dense matter, and the interstellar medium. More recently, pulsar surveys have led to the serendipitous discovery of fast radio bursts (FRBs).
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