Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-17-2019

Publication Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Volume

485

Issue

1

First page number:

1367

Last page number:

1376

Abstract

The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is still a mystery. One model proposed to interpret the only known repeating object, FRB 121102, is that the radio emission is generated from asteroids colliding with a highly magnetized neutron star (NS). With N-body simulations, we model a debris disc around a central star with an eccentric orbit intruding NS. As the NS approaches the first periastron passage, most of the comets are scattered away rather than being accreted by the NS. To match the observed FRB rate, the debris belt would have to be at least 3 orders of magnitude more dense than the Kuiper belt. We also consider the rate of collisions on to the central object but find that the density of the debris belt must be at least 4 orders of magnitude more dense than the Kuiper belt. These discrepancies in the density arise even if (1) one introduces a Kuiper belt-like comet belt rather than an asteroid belt and assume that comet impacts can also make FRBs; (2) the NS moves ∼2 orders of magnitude slower than their normal proper-motion velocity due to supernova kicks; and (3) the NS orbit is coplanar to the debris belt, which provides the highest rate of collisions.

Keywords

Minor planets; Asteroids: general; Pulsars: general; Radio continuum: general

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy

File Size

2.022 KB

Language

English

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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