Diverse Polarization Angle Swings From a Repeating Fast Radio Burst Source
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-28-2020
Publication Title
Nature
Volume
586
Issue
7831
First page number:
693
Last page number:
696
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio transients1,2 of unknown origin. Two possible mechanisms that could generate extremely coherent emission from FRBs invoke neutron star magnetospheres3–5 or relativistic shocks far from the central energy source6–8. Detailed polarization observations may help us to understand the emission mechanism. However, the available FRB polarization data have been perplexing, because they show a host of polarimetric properties, including either a constant polarization angle during each burst for some repeaters9,10 or variable polarization angles in some other apparently one-off events11,12. Here we report observations of 15 bursts from FRB 180301 and find various polarization angle swings in seven of them. The diversity of the polarization angle features of these bursts is consistent with a magnetospheric origin of the radio emission, and disfavours the radiation models invoking relativistic shocks.
Keywords
Fast radio bursts (FRBs); Detection method; Observational method; Polarization observation; Emission mechanism
Disciplines
Astrophysics and Astronomy | Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Language
English
Repository Citation
Luo, R.,
Wang, B. J.,
Men, Y. P.,
Zhang, C. F.,
Jiang, J. C.,
Xu, H.,
Wang, W. Y.,
Lee, K. J.,
Han, J. L.,
Zhang, B.,
Caballero, R. N.,
Chen, M. Z.,
Chen, X. L.,
Gan, H. Q.,
Guo, Y. J.,
Hao, L. F.,
Huang, Y. X.,
Jiang, P.,
Li, H.,
Li, J.,
Li, Z. X.,
Luo, J. T.,
Pan, J.,
Pei, X.,
Qian, L.,
Sun, J. H.,
Wang, M.,
Wang, N.,
Wen, Z. G.,
Xu, R. X.,
Xu, Y. H.
(2020).
Diverse Polarization Angle Swings From a Repeating Fast Radio Burst Source.
Nature, 586(7831),
693-696.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2827-2