Revision 1

Superseded · first revision · record

Title: Which astrophysical objects produce fast radio bursts?
Plain: One magnetar in our own galaxy (a neutron star with a magnetic field of about $2e14\ \mathrm{G}$) has emitted an FRB-like burst, but it is unknown whether magnetars make all FRBs. Bursts also come from an old star cluster and from dead galaxies, where young magnetars should be rare.
Precise: Given the observed FRB population (all-sky rate of order $1e3\,\text{per day}$ above a few Jy ms at $600\,\mathrm{MHz}$, isotropic energies $1e36 \text{ to } 1e43\,\mathrm{erg}$, hosts ranging from star-forming spirals to quiescent ellipticals and a globular cluster of M81), determine which source classes produce it and in what proportions. An answer is a population model (young magnetars, merger-formed or accretion-induced neutron stars, accreting compact binaries, other) that reproduces the energy function, repetition statistics, and host and offset distributions.
Settled by: A census of several hundred FRBs localized to parsec-scale environments, combined with X-ray or optical counterparts that fix the progenitor class of individual sources.
Kind: phenomenon
Answer type: identification
References: (empty)
Literature status: contested
Status note: 2025: CHIME Outriggers localized the brightest one-off burst, FRB 20250316A, to a 13 pc region in NGC 4141, where JWST found a faint candidate counterpart consistent with a red giant or a massive star.
Posed since: 2007