Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-31-2018

Publication Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

481

Issue

2

First page number:

2320

Last page number:

2337

Abstract

33 fast radio bursts (FRBs) had been detected by 2018 March. Although the sample size is still limited, meaningful statistical studies can already be carried out. The normalized luminosity function places important constraints on the intrinsic power output, sheds light on the origin(s) of FRBs, and can guide future observations. In this paper, we measure the normalized luminosity function of FRBs. Using Bayesian statistics, we can naturally account for a variety of factors such as receiver noise temperature, bandwidth, and source selection criteria. We can also include astronomical systematics, such as host galaxy dispersion measure, FRB local dispersion measure, galaxy evolution, geometric projection effects, and Galactic halo contribution. Assuming a Schechter luminosity function, we show that the isotropic luminosities of FRBs have a power-law distribution that covers approximately three orders of magnitude, with a power-law index ranging from −1.8 to −1.2 and a cut off ∼2×1044ergs−1⁠. By using different galaxy models and well-established Bayesian marginalization techniques, we show that our conclusions are robust against unknowns, such as the electron densities in the Milky Way halo and the FRB environment, host galaxy morphology, and telescope beam response.

Keywords

Stars: Luminosity function, mass function; ISM: General; Galaxies: Structure; Cosmology: Theory

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy

File Format

PDF

File Size

1.864 Kb

Language

English

Permissions

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2018 [owner as specified on the article] Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

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