Quark Nova Model for Fast Radio Bursts

Abstract

FRBs are puzzling, millisecond, energetic radio transients with no discernible source; observations show no counterparts in other frequency bands. The birth of a quark star from a parent neutron star experiencing a quark nova - previously thought undetectable when born in isolation - provides a natural explanation for the emission characteristics of FRBs. The generation of unstable r-process elements in the quark nova ejecta provides millisecond exponential injection of electrons into the surrounding strong magnetic field at the parent neutron star's light cylinder via $\beta$-decay. This radio synchrotron emission has a total duration of hundreds of milliseconds and matches the observed spectrum while reducing the inferred dispersion measure by approximately 200 cm${}^{-3}$ pc. The model allows indirect measurement of neutron star magnetic fields and periods in addition to providing astronomical measurements of $\beta$-decay chains of unstable neutron rich nuclei. Using this model, we can calculate expected FRB average energies ($\sim$ 10${}^{41}$ ergs), spectra shapes and provide a theoretical framework for determining distances.

Updated Version: 18 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; Style package (LaTeX macro) changed to RAA; Results unchanged; Discussion points added: other quark star observables, detailed light curve discussion (and figure), addition of rate estimate and clarifying additional clarifying comments. Original: 8 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (7)

• Fast Radio Bursts: Collisions between Neutron Stars and Asteroids/Comets
• Local Circumnuclear Magnetar Solution to Extragalactic Fast Radio Bursts
• Dark Matter-induced Collapse of Neutron Stars: A Possible Link Between Fast Radio Bursts and the Missing Pulsar Problem
• Nucleosynthesis in neutron-rich ejecta from quark-novae
• Coalescence of Strange-Quark Planets with Strange Stars: a New Kind of Sources for Gravitational Wave Bursts
• Magnetic Field Decay and Period Evolution of Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars in the Context of Quark Stars
• Quark-Novae in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries with massive neutron stars: A universal model for short-hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Fast Radio Bursts
• A Living Theory Catalogue for Fast Radio Bursts
• On the normalised FRB luminosity function
• Primordial Black Holes and $r$-Process Nucleosynthesis
• Fast Radio Bursts
• Luminosity-duration relations and luminosity functions of repeating and non-repeating fast radio bursts
• Interacting $ud$ and $uds$ quark matter at finite densities and quark stars
• The luminosity--volume test for cosmological Fast Radio Bursts
• What binary systems are the most likely sources for periodically repeating FRBs?
• The nature of fast radio bursts
• A Quark-Nova in the wake of a core-collapse Supernova: a unifying model for long duration Gamma-Ray Bursts and Fast Radio Bursts
• Numerical Simulation of the Hydrodynamical Combustion to Strange Quark Matter in the Trapped Neutrino Regime
• Test the hypothesis of compact-binary-coalescence origin of fast radio bursts through a multi-messenger approach
• Fast Radio Bursts signal high-frequency gravitational waves
• Clumpy jets from black hole-massive star binaries as engines of Fast Radio Bursts