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No Strong Evidence for Plasma Lensing in FRB 20240114A

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2026-07-03 v1
Authors: Jiarui Niu , Xiaohui Liu , Nan Xu , Songyu Shen , Junshuo Zhang , Tiancong Wang , Pawan Kumar , Yuanhong Qu , Dejiang Zhou , Weiwei Zhu , Bing Zhang , He Gao , Dongzi Li , Jinlin Han , Di Li , Xuelei Chen , Kejia Lee , Ye Li , Weiyang Wang , Qiuyang Fu , Jiawei Jin , Yanqing Cai , Caisong Liu , Shuo Cao , Ziwei Wu , Heng Xu , Dengke Zhou , Longxuan Zhang , Wanjin Lu , Yi Feng , Chenhui Niu , Jiawei Luo , Rui Luo , Chunfeng Zhang , Shiqian Zhao , Chengwei Liang
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Abstract

FRB~20240114A is an extremely active repeating fast radio burst for which plasma lensing has been proposed to explain its burst-rate variations, spectral evolution, and apparently ``carbon-copy'' burst pairs. Using FAST data and publicly available Parkes observations, we test this interpretation with a one-dimensional Gaussian plasma-lens model. Although the burst-rate enhancements can be fitted separately, the corresponding magnification peaks and demagnification troughs are offset by far more than predicted and show no consistent periodicity. Moreover, with more than 10,000 bursts detected, a few apparently ``carbon-copy'' pairs can readily occur by chance. The burst bandwidth is not systematically narrower during the proposed lensing interval, nor are the burst energies significantly enhanced during the predicted magnification interval. These results provide no compelling evidence that a single Gaussian plasma lens explains the observed variability, which is more likely dominated by intrinsic source activity.

Keywords

fast radio bursts plasma lensing FRB 20240114A burst rate variations intrinsic source activity

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.02939,
  title  = {No Strong Evidence for Plasma Lensing in FRB 20240114A},
  author = {Jiarui Niu and Xiaohui Liu and Nan Xu and Songyu Shen and Junshuo Zhang and Tiancong Wang and Pawan Kumar and Yuanhong Qu and Dejiang Zhou and Weiwei Zhu and Bing Zhang and He Gao and Dongzi Li and Jinlin Han and Di Li and Xuelei Chen and Kejia Lee and Ye Li and Weiyang Wang and Qiuyang Fu and Jiawei Jin and Yanqing Cai and Caisong Liu and Shuo Cao and Ziwei Wu and Heng Xu and Dengke Zhou and Longxuan Zhang and Wanjin Lu and Yi Feng and Chenhui Niu and Jiawei Luo and Rui Luo and Chunfeng Zhang and Shiqian Zhao and Chengwei Liang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.02939},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 5 figures; submitted for publication