Possible periodic activity in the repeating FRB 121102

Abstract

The discovery that at least some Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) repeat has ruled out cataclysmic events as the progenitors of these particular bursts. FRB~121102 is the most well-studied repeating FRB but despite extensive monitoring of the source, no underlying pattern in the repetition has previously been identified. Here, we present the results from a radio monitoring campaign of FRB~121102 using the 76-m Lovell telescope. Using the pulses detected in the Lovell data along with pulses from the literature, we report a detection of periodic behaviour of the source over the span of five years of data. We predict that the source is currently `off' and that it should turn `on' for the approximate MJD range $59002-59089$ (2020-06-02 to 2020-08-28). This result, along with the recent detection of periodicity from another repeating FRB, highlights the need for long-term monitoring of repeating FRBs at a high cadence. Using simulations, we show that one needs at least 100 hours of telescope time to follow-up repeating FRBs at a cadence of 0.5--3 days to detect periodicities in the range of 10--150 days. If the period is real, it shows that repeating FRBs can have a large range in their activity periods that might be difficult to reconcile with neutron star precession models.

9 pages, 6 Figures, 3 Tables. More detections added to the periodicity search. Updated period and activity period. Complete tables (Table 1 and Table 3) have been submitted as online supplementary materials

References in corpus (12)

• A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin
• The direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host
• The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
• A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance
• The Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102 as Seen on Milliarcsecond Angular Scales
• Catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy ($4^{th}$ edition)
• Nine New Repeating Fast Radio Burst Sources from CHIME/FRB
• A Multi-telescope Campaign on FRB 121102: Implications for the FRB Population
• A fast radio burst in the direction of the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• A sample of low energy bursts from FRB 121102
• A search for optical bursts from the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102
• Constraints on the low frequency spectrum of FRB 121102

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Simultaneous multi-telescope observations of FRB 121102
• A Magnetar-Asteroid Impact Model for FRB 200428 Associated with an X-ray Burst from SGR 1935+2154
• Detection of 15 bursts from FRB 180916.J0158+65 with the uGMRT
• FRB 200428: an Impact between an Asteroid and a Magnetar
• Fast Radio Bursts from reconnection events in magnetar magnetospheres
• Periodic fast radio bursts from forcedly precessing neutron stars, anomalous torque, and internal magnetic field for FRB 180916.J0158+65 and FRB 121102
• VLA/Realfast Detection of a Burst from FRB180916.J0158+65 and Tests for Periodic Activity
• Understanding FRB 200428 in the synchrotron maser shock model: consistency and possible challenge