Statistical properties of the repeating fast radio burst source FRB 121102

Abstract

Currently, FRB 121102 is the only fast radio burst source that was observed to give out bursts repeatedly. It shows a high repeating rate, with more than one hundred bursts being spotted, but with no obvious periodicity in the activities. Thanks to its repetition, the source was well localized with a subarcsecond accuracy, leading to a redshift measurement of about 0.2. FRB 121102 is a unique source that can help us understand the enigmatic nature of fast radio bursts. In this study, we analyze the characteristics of the waiting times between bursts from FRB 121102. It is found that there is a clear bimodal distribution for the waiting times. While most waiting times cluster at several hundred seconds, a small portion of the waiting times are strikingly in the range of 2--40 millisecond. More interestingly, it is found that the waiting time does not correlate with the burst intensity, either for the preceding burst or for the subsequent burst. It strongly indicates that the repeating bursts should be generated by some external mechanisms, but not internal mechanisms. As a result, the models involving collisions between small bodies and neutron stars could be competitive mechanisms for this interesting source.

11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in International Journal of Cosmology, Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Fast radio bursts as synchrotron maser emission from decelerating relativistic blast waves
• A sample of low energy bursts from FRB 121102
• Fast radio bursts trigger aftershocks resembling earthquakes, but not solar flares
• A Comprehensive Analysis on Repeating Fast Radio Bursts
• Similarity to earthquakes again: periodic radio pulses of the magnetar SGR 1935+2154 are accompanied by aftershocks like fast radio bursts
• A search for hard X-ray bursts occurring simultaneously to fast radio bursts in the repeating FRB 121102
• Self-organized Criticality in Multi-pulse Gamma-Ray Bursts