English

Large host-galaxy dispersion measure of fast radio bursts

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2017-04-26 v2

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) have excessive dispersion measures (DMs) and an all-sky distribution, which point toward an extragalactic or even a cosmological origin. We develop a method to extract the mean host galaxy DM (DMHG,loc\left\langle{\rm DM_{HG,loc}}\right\rangle) and the characterized luminosity (LL) of FRBs using the observed DM-Flux data, based on the assumption of a narrow luminosity distribution. Applying Bayesian inference to the data of 21 FRBs, we derive a relatively large mean host DM, i.e. DMHG,loc270 pc cm3\left\langle{\rm DM_{HG,loc}}\right\rangle \sim 270~\rm{pc~cm^{-3}} with a large dispersion. A relatively large DMHG{\rm DM_{HG}} of FRBs is also supported by the millisecond scattering times of some FRBs and the relatively small redshift z=0.19273z=0.19273 of FRB 121102 (which gives DMHG,loc210 pc cm3{\rm DM_{HG,loc}} \sim 210 ~\rm{pc~cm^{-3}}). The large host galaxy DM may be contributed by the ISM or a near-source plasma in the host galaxy. If it is contributed by the ISM, the type of the FRB host galaxies would not be Milky Way (MW)-like, consistent with the detected host of FRB 121102. We also discuss the possibility of having a near-source supernova remnant (SNR), pulsar wind nebula (PWN) or HII region that gives a significant contribution to the observed DMHG{\rm DM_{HG}}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1701.06465,
  title  = {Large host-galaxy dispersion measure of fast radio bursts},
  author = {Yuan-Pei Yang and Rui Luo and Zhuo Li and Bing Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1701.06465},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure. Upgrade with 21 FRBs. Accepted for publication in ApJL