H.E.S.S. programme searching for VHE gamma rays associated with FRBs
Abstract
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are highly energetic, extremely short-lived bursts of radio flashes. Despite extensive research, the exact cause of these outbursts remains speculative. The high luminosity, short duration, and high dispersion measure of these events suggest they result from extreme, high-energy extragalactic sources, such as highly magnetized and rapidly spinning neutron stars known as magnetars. The number of detected FRBs, including repeating ones, has grown rapidly in recent years. Except for FRB 20200428D, and FRB-like radio burst that is associated to Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154, no multi-wavelength counterpart to any FRB has been detected yet. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) telescope has developed a {program} to follow up FRBs searching for their gamma-ray counterparts, helping to uncover the nature of FRBs and FRB sources. This paper provides an overview of the searches for FRB sources conducted by H.E.S.S., including follow-up observations and simultaneous multi-wavelength campaigns with radio and X-ray observatories. Among the FRB sources observed by H.E.S.S., nine are localized with redshifts ranging between 0.11 and 0.492 from 2015 to 2022. No significant very high energy (VHE) emission was detected during these observations. We report constraints on the VHE luminosity ranging from erg s and erg s, placing limits on the FRB's region persistent VHE emission and potential FRB afterglow emission across timescales from hours to years.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.02143,
title = {H.E.S.S. programme searching for VHE gamma rays associated with FRBs},
author = {F. Aharonian and A. Archaryya and J. Aschersleben and H. Ashkar and M. Backes and V. Barbosa. Martins and R. Batzofin and Y. Becherini and D. Berge and K. Bernlöhr and M. Böttcher and C. Boisson and J. Bolmont and M. de. Bony. de. Lavergne and J. Borowska and F. Bradascio and R. Brose and A. Brown and F. Brun and B. Bruno and C. Burger-Scheidlin and S. Casanova and J. Celic and M. Cerruti and T. Chand and S. Chandra and A. Chen and J. Chibueze and O. Chibueze and J. Damascene. Mbarubucyeye and J. de. Assis. Scarpin and A. Djannati-Ataï and J. Djuvsland and A. Dmytriiev and K. Egberts and S. Einecke and J. -P. Ernenwein and C. Escañuela. Nieves and M. Filipovic and G. Fontaine and S. Funk and S. Gabici and J. F. Glicenstein and J. Glombitza and G. Grolleron and B. Heß and W. Hofmann and T. L. Holch and M. Holler and D. Horns and Zhiqiu. Huang and A. Jaitly and M. Jamrozy and F. Jankowsky and I. Jung-Richardt and E. Kasai and K. Katarzyński and D. Kerszberg and R. Khatoon and B. Khélifi and W. Kluźniak and Nu. Komin and K. Kosack and D. Kostunin and A. Kundu and R. G. Lang and S. Le. Stum and A. Lemière and M. Lemoine-Goumard and J. -P. Lenain and A. Luashvili and J. Mackey and D. Malyshev and V. Marandon and R. Marx and A. Mehta and M. Meyer and A. Mitchell and R. Moderski and M. O. Moghadam and E. Moulin and M. de. Naurois and J. Niemiec and P. O'Brien and L. Olivera-Nieto and E. de. Ona. Wilhelmi and M. Ostrowski and S. Panny and M. Panter and R. D. Parsons and U. Pensec and S. Pita and G. Pühlhofer and M. Punch and A. Quirrenbach and S. Ravikularaman and M. Regeard and O. Reimer and H. Ren and B. Reville and F. Rieger and G. Rowell and B. Rudak and K. Sabri and V. Sahakian and H. Salzmann and A. Santangelo and M. Sasaki and J. Schäfer and F. Schüssler and H. M. Schutte and J. N. S. Shapopi and A. Sharma and S. Spencer and Ł. Stawarz and R. Steenkamp and S. Steinmassl and C. Steppa and T. Takahashi and T. Tanaka and M. Tsirou and C. van. Eldik and M. Vecchi and C. Venter and T. Wach and S. J. Wagner and A. Wierzcholska and A. A. Zdziarski and A. Zech and N. Żywucka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.02143},
year = {2025}
}