It is noted that the duration of a fast radio burst (FRB), about 10−3 s, is a smaller fraction of the time delay between multiple images of a source gravitationally lensed by a galaxy or galaxy cluster than the human lifetime is to the age of the universe. Thus repeating, strongly lensed FRBs may offer an unprecedented opportunity for observing cosmological evolution in "real time". The possibility is discussed of observing cosmic expansion, transverse proper motion, mass accretion and perhaps growth of density perturbations, as a function of redshift.
@article{arxiv.1807.03287,
title = {Observing Cosmological Processes in Real Time with Repeating Fast Radio Bursts},
author = {Adi Zitrin and David Eichler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.03287},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
9 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. V2: some corrections made. Accepted for publication