On associating Fast Radio Bursts with afterglows

Abstract

A radio source that faded over six days, with a redshift of $z\approx 0.5$ host, has been identified by Keane et al. (2016) as the transient afterglow to a fast radio burst (FRB 150418). We report follow-up radio and optical observations of the afterglow candidate and find a source that is consistent with an active galactic nucleus. If the afterglow candidate is nonetheless a prototypical FRB afterglow, existing slow-transient surveys limit the fraction of FRBs that produce afterglows to 0.25 for afterglows with fractional variation, $m=2|S_1-S_2|/(S_1+S_2)\ge 0.7$, and 0.07 for $m\ge 1$, at 95% confidence. In anticipation of a barrage of bursts expected from future FRB surveys, we provide a simple framework for statistical association of FRBs with afterglows. Our framework properly accounts for statistical uncertainties, and ensures consistency with limits set by slow-transient surveys.

arXiv commentAccepted version (ApJL)

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Cited by in corpus (31)

• The direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host
• A Living Theory Catalogue for Fast Radio Bursts
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