Faculty Mentor
Steve Liebling
Major/Area of Research
Physics
Description
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) were recently discovered in 2007 and have been a mystery ever since. The purpose of this study is to analyze progenitor models of possible origin. Despite their large energies, these bursts appear only in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Out of the 33 measured FRBs, only one has been observed to repeat (FRB 121101). In this work the significance of important properties such as the dispersion measure, Faraday rotation, and magnetic fields is discussed. The most persuasive progenitor models including binary neutron star mergers, soft gamma ray repeaters (SGRs), Gamma ray bursts (GRBs), merging of white dwarfs, magnetar giant flares, and eruptions from flaring main sequence stars are utilized to analyze the possible origin of FRBs. The results from the above properties indicates that the bursts have an extra-galactic origin. We believe these models will lead us in the right direction to the discovery of the origins of FRBs.
Included in
An Analysis of Fast Radio Bursts
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) were recently discovered in 2007 and have been a mystery ever since. The purpose of this study is to analyze progenitor models of possible origin. Despite their large energies, these bursts appear only in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Out of the 33 measured FRBs, only one has been observed to repeat (FRB 121101). In this work the significance of important properties such as the dispersion measure, Faraday rotation, and magnetic fields is discussed. The most persuasive progenitor models including binary neutron star mergers, soft gamma ray repeaters (SGRs), Gamma ray bursts (GRBs), merging of white dwarfs, magnetar giant flares, and eruptions from flaring main sequence stars are utilized to analyze the possible origin of FRBs. The results from the above properties indicates that the bursts have an extra-galactic origin. We believe these models will lead us in the right direction to the discovery of the origins of FRBs.