Sub-second periodicity in a fast radio burst

CHIME/FRB Collaboration; Bridget C Andersen; Kevin Bandura; Mohit Bhardwaj; P J Boyle; Charanjot Brar; Daniela Breitman; Tomas Cassanelli; Shami Chatterjee; Pragya Chawla; Jean-François Cliche; Davor Cubranic; Alice P Curtin; Meiling Deng; Matt Dobbs; Fengqiu Adam Dong; Emmanuel Fonseca; B M Gaensler; Utkarsh Giri; Deborah C Good; Alex S Hill; Alexander Josephy; J F Kaczmarek; Zarif Kader; Joseph Kania; Victoria M Kaspi; Calvin Leung; D Z Li; Hsiu-Hsien Lin; Kiyoshi W Masui; Ryan Mckinven; Juan Mena-Parra; Marcus Merryfield; B W Meyers; D Michilli; Arun Naidu; Laura Newburgh; C Ng; Anna Ordog; Chitrang Patel; Aaron B Pearlman; Ue-Li Pen; Emily Petroff; Ziggy Pleunis; Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi; Mubdi Rahman; Scott Ransom; Andre Renard; Pranav Sanghavi; Paul Scholz; J Richard Shaw; Kaitlyn Shin; Seth R Siegel; Saurabh Singh; Kendrick Smith; Ingrid Stairs; Chia Min Tan; Shriharsh P Tendulkar; Keith Vanderlinde; D V Wiebe; Dallas Wulf; Andrew Zwaniga

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04841-8

Sub-second periodicity in a fast radio burst

Nature. 2022 Jul;607(7918):256-259. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04841-8. Epub 2022 Jul 13.

Authors

CHIME/FRB Collaboration; Bridget C Andersen^{1

2}, Kevin Bandura^{3

4}, Mohit Bhardwaj^{1

2}, P J Boyle^{1

2}, Charanjot Brar^{1

2}, Daniela Breitman^{5

6

7}, Tomas Cassanelli^{6

7}, Shami Chatterjee⁸, Pragya Chawla^{1

2}, Jean-François Cliche^{1

2}, Davor Cubranic⁹, Alice P Curtin^{1

2}, Meiling Deng^{10

11}, Matt Dobbs^{1

2}, Fengqiu Adam Dong⁹, Emmanuel Fonseca^{1

2}, B M Gaensler^{6

7}, Utkarsh Giri^{10

12}, Deborah C Good⁹, Alex S Hill^{11

13}, Alexander Josephy^{1

2}, J F Kaczmarek¹¹, Zarif Kader^{1

2}, Joseph Kania^{4

14}, Victoria M Kaspi^{1

2}, Calvin Leung^{15

16}, D Z Li¹⁷, Hsiu-Hsien Lin^{18

19}, Kiyoshi W Masui^{15

16}, Ryan Mckinven^{6

7}, Juan Mena-Parra¹⁵, Marcus Merryfield^{1

2}, B W Meyers⁹, D Michilli^{20

21

22

23}, Arun Naidu^{1

2}, Laura Newburgh²⁴, C Ng⁶, Anna Ordog^{11

13}, Chitrang Patel^{1

6}, Aaron B Pearlman^{1

2}, Ue-Li Pen^{6

10

18

19

25}, Emily Petroff^{1

2

26}, Ziggy Pleunis^{1

2

6}, Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi^{10

12}, Mubdi Rahman²⁷, Scott Ransom²⁸, Andre Renard⁶, Pranav Sanghavi^{3

4}, Paul Scholz⁶, J Richard Shaw⁹, Kaitlyn Shin^{15

16}, Seth R Siegel^{1

2}, Saurabh Singh^{1

2}, Kendrick Smith¹⁰, Ingrid Stairs⁹, Chia Min Tan^{1

2}, Shriharsh P Tendulkar^{29

30}, Keith Vanderlinde^{6

7}, D V Wiebe⁹, Dallas Wulf^{1

2}, Andrew Zwaniga^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
² McGill Space Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
³ Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
⁴ Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
¹⁰ Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
¹¹ Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Research Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Research Council Canada, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
¹³ Department of Computer Science, Math, Physics, & Statistics, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
¹⁵ MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁷ Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
¹⁹ Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
²⁰ Department of Physics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. [email protected].
²¹ McGill Space Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. [email protected].
²² MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected].
²³ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected].
²⁴ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
²⁵ Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
²⁶ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
²⁷ Sidrat Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
²⁸ National Radio, Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
²⁹ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India.
³⁰ National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, India.

PMID: 35831603
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04841-8

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration flashes of radio waves that are visible at distances of billions of light years¹. The nature of their progenitors and their emission mechanism remain open astrophysical questions². Here we report the detection of the multicomponent FRB 20191221A and the identification of a periodic separation of 216.8(1) ms between its components, with a significance of 6.5σ. The long (roughly 3 s) duration and nine or more components forming the pulse profile make this source an outlier in the FRB population. Such short periodicity provides strong evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event. Moreover, our detection favours emission arising from the neutron-star magnetosphere^3,4, as opposed to emission regions located further away from the star, as predicted by some models⁵.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't