Tomasz Nowakowski is a writer for the website Phys.org.
VLA images in seven epochs with band indicated in parentheses. Credit: Ge Chen et al.
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology have investigated a persistent radio source that is associated with a fast radio burst. The results of the study were published on arXiv.org on January 4, and they shed more light on the origin of this source.
The dispersion sweep of radio pulsars is a characteristic of fast radio bursts. Astronomers consider a variety of explanations for the physical nature of the bursts, ranging from the emission of maser from young magnetars in supernova remnants to the formation of string.
One of the most extensively studied FRB sources is the first repeating fast radio burst detected. It has a complex burst morphology, sub-burst downward frequency drift, and also pulse phenology. One of the two FRBs reported to be spatially associated with radio emission of unknown origin is FRB 121102.
Caltech's Ge Chen and a team of stroncists took a closer look at the radio source. They observed the G. Jansky Very Large array with the LRIS at the Keck Observatory.
We investigated the origin of the persistent radio source. The researchers wrote in the paper that they presented new VLA monitoring data from 12 to 26 GHz.
The team was able to estimate the physical size of the object. The emission radius is most likely between 0.1 and 1 light year. There are a few compact radio source candidates, for instance, active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsar wind nebulae (PW Ne), very young supernova remnants (SNRs) and gamma-ray burst afterglows.
The mass of the potential black hole was constrained by the astronomer. This source is too faint in the X-ray for its calculated black hole mass and bright radio emission, which does not support the AGN scenario.
The radio luminosity of the radio was measured to be 20 billion TW/Hz. The researchers say that the source is too bright to be an SNR. It was noted that the bright QRS121102 is too bright to be a long-duration GRB radio afterglow.
The researchers noted that it is too early to draw conclusions about the true origin of the source and more observations are needed.
The authors of the paper urged continued broadband radio monitoring of the object to search for long-term evolution and to evaluate potential analogs that may provide more insight into the nature of the object.
A comprehensive observational study of the FRB 121102 persistent radio source.
The Science X Network will be launched in 2022.
There is a persistent radio source that was investigated in detail on January 11.
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