Speaker
Description
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) – millisecond-duration, luminous radio transients – remain one of the biggest mysteries in modern astrophysics. While thousands have been detected, their sources and emission mechanisms are still widely debated. Precise localization is crucial for understanding the environments of FRBs, and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) provides an unparalleled tool for achieving milliarcsecond precision.
A small but highly valuable set of repeating FRBs have been found to be associated with persistent radio sources (PRSs); compact, non-thermal emitters whose nature remains uncertain. Of these FRB-PRS associations, the two most robust ones involve repeating FRBs with large and evolving rotation measures (RMs), indicating highly magnetized and dynamic environments. These environments are thought to trace extreme stellar remnants or active galactic nuclei.
FRB 20190417A is a high-dispersion measure (DM) repeating FRB, first detected by the CHIME/FRB Collaboration in 2019. Recently, Ibik et al. (2024) identified a candidate PRS, 20190417A-S1, within the CHIME localization region of the FRB. This PRS, associated with a star-forming galaxy at z = 0.128, exhibits properties similar to those of known FRB-PRSs.
Using VLBI observations with the European VLBI Network (EVN), we present the milliarcsecond localization of FRB 20190417A and PRS 20190417A-S1. We confirm that the FRB is spatially coincident with a compact PRS and find that a significant fraction of the FRB's DM likely originates from its local environment, reinforcing the role of magnetized, dense media in FRB emission. FRB 20190417A presents only the third well-established case of a repeating FRB linked to a PRS, making it a key system for understanding the physical nature of PRSs and their connection to FRBs.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 3 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Talk |
| Talk preference for PhD students | 1st year |
