On the afterglow and progenitor of FRB 150418

Abstract

Keane et al. recently detected a fading radio source following FRB 150418, leading to the identification of a putative host galaxy at $z=0.492\pm 0.008$. Assuming that the fading source is the afterglow of FRB 150418, I model the afterglow and constrain the isotropic energy of the explosion to be a few $10^{50}$ erg, comparable to that of a short duration GRB. The outflow may have a jet opening angle of $\sim 0.22$ rad, so that the beaming-corrected energy is below $10^{49}$ erg. The results rule out most FRB progenitor models for this FRB, but may be consistent with either of the following two scenarios. The first scenario invokes a merger of an NS-NS binary, which produced an undetected short GRB and a supra-massive neutron star, which subsequently collapsed into a black hole, probably 100s of seconds after the short GRB. The second scenario invokes a merger of a compact star binary (BH-BH, NS-NS, or BH-NS) system whose pre-merger dynamical magnetospheric activities made the FRB, which is followed by an undetected short GRB-like transient. The gravitational wave (GW) event GW150914 would be a sister of FRB 150418 in this second scenario. In both cases, one expects an exciting prospect of GW/FRB/GRB associations.

ApJL, in press

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• Short gamma-ray bursts in the "time-reversal" scenario
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• Repeating Fast Radio Bursts from Highly Magnetized Pulsars Travelling through Asteroid Belts
• A "Cosmic Comb" Model of Fast Radio Bursts
• Fast radio bursts and their gamma-ray or radio afterglows as Kerr-Newman black hole binaries
• SGR-like behaviour of the repeating FRB 121102
• A Neutron Star-White Dwarf Binary Model for Repeating Fast Radio Burst 121102
• Statistical properties magnetar bursts and FRB 121102
• On the origin of the scatter broadening of fast radio burst pulses and astrophysical implications
• Fast Radio Bursts with Extended Gamma-Ray Emission?
• Gravitational-Wave Constraints on the Progenitors of Fast Radio Bursts
• Counting on Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: Gravitational-Wave Constraints of Jet Geometry
• On the nature of FRB 150418: clues from European VLBI Network and e-MERLIN observations
• First limits on the very-high energy gamma-ray afterglow emission of a fast radio burst: H.E.S.S. observations of FRB 150418
• Multi-wavelength afterglow emission from bursts associated with magnetar flares and fast radio bursts
• A unified model of supernova driven by magnetic monopoles
• Fast Radio Bursts as crustal dynamical events induced by magnetic field evolution in young magnetars
• A search for optical transients associated with Fast Radio Burst 150418