Periodic activity from a fast radio burst source
Journal article, 2020

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright, millisecond-duration radio transients originating from sources at extragalactic distances1, the origin of which is unknown. Some FRB sources emit repeat bursts, ruling out cataclysmic origins for those events2–4. Despite searches for periodicity in repeat burst arrival times on timescales from milliseconds to many days2,5–7, these bursts have hitherto been observed to appear sporadically and—although clustered8—without a regular pattern. Here we report observations of a 16.35 ± 0.15 day periodicity (or possibly a higher-frequency alias of that periodicity) from the repeating FRB 180916.J0158+65 detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst Project4,9. In 38 bursts recorded from 16 September 2018 to 4 February 2020 utc, we find that all bursts arrive in a five-day phase window, and 50 per cent of the bursts arrive in a 0.6-day phase window. Our results suggest a mechanism for periodic modulation either of the burst emission itself or through external amplification or absorption, and disfavour models invoking purely sporadic processes.

Fourier transform

neutron

signal noise ratio

fast radio burst

vortex motion

experimental study

cosmic radiation

amplification

periodicity

simulation

aastronomy

timescale

rotation

dispersion

Author

M. Amiri

University of British Columbia (UBC)

B. Andersen

McGill University

K. Bandura

West Virginia University

M. Bhardwaj

McGill University

P. J. Boyle

McGill University

C. Brar

McGill University

P. Chawla

McGill University

T. Chen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

J. F. Cliche

McGill University

D. Cubranic

University of British Columbia (UBC)

M. Deng

University of British Columbia (UBC)

N. T. Denman

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

M. Dobbs

McGill University

F. Q. Dong

University of British Columbia (UBC)

M. Fandino

University of British Columbia (UBC)

E. Fonseca

McGill University

B. Gaensler

University of Toronto

U. Giri

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

University of Waterloo

D. C. Good

University of British Columbia (UBC)

M. Halpern

University of British Columbia (UBC)

J. W. T. Hessels

University of Amsterdam

Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)

A. S. Hill

University of British Columbia (UBC)

National Research Council Canada

C. Höfer

University of British Columbia (UBC)

A. Josephy

McGill University

J. W. Kania

West Virginia University

R. Karuppusamy

Max Planck Society

V. M. Kaspi

McGill University

A. Keimpema

Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)

Franz Kirsten

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

T. L. Landecker

National Research Council Canada

D. A. Lang

University of Waterloo

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

C. Leung

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

D. Z. Li

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

University of Toronto

Max Planck Society

H. H. Lin

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

Max Planck Society

B. Marcote

Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)

K. Masui

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

R. Mckinven

University of Toronto

J. Mena-Parra

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

M. Merryfield

McGill University

D. Michilli

McGill University

N. Milutinovic

University of British Columbia (UBC)

National Research Council Canada

A. Mirhosseini

University of British Columbia (UBC)

A. Naidu

McGill University

L. B. Newburgh

Yale University

C. Ng

University of Toronto

K. Nimmo

University of Amsterdam

Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)

Z. Paragi

Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)

C. Patel

University of Toronto

McGill University

U. L. Pen

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

University of Toronto

Max Planck Society

T. Pinsonneault-Marotte

University of British Columbia (UBC)

Z. Pleunis

McGill University

M. Rafiei-Ravandi

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

M. Rahman

University of Toronto

S. M. Ransom

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

A. Renard

University of Toronto

P. Sanghavi

West Virginia University

P. Scholz

University of Toronto

National Research Council Canada

J. R. Shaw

University of British Columbia (UBC)

K. Shin

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

S. R. Siegel

McGill University

S. Singh

McGill University

R. J. Smegal

University of British Columbia (UBC)

K. M. Smith

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

I. H. Stairs

University of British Columbia (UBC)

S. P. Tendulkar

McGill University

I. Tretyakov

University of Toronto

K. Vanderlinde

University of Toronto

H. Wang

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

X. Wang

Sun Yat-Sen University

D. Wulf

McGill University

P. Yadav

University of British Columbia (UBC)

A. V. Zwaniga

McGill University

Nature

0028-0836 (ISSN) 1476-4687 (eISSN)

Vol. 582 7812 351-355

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Areas of Advance

Energy

Infrastructure

Onsala Space Observatory

DOI

10.1038/s41586-020-2398-2

PubMed

32555491

More information

Latest update

3/29/2022