On the true fractions of repeating and non-repeating FRB sources

Abstract

Observationally, fast radio bursts (FRBs) can be divided into repeating and apparently non-repeating (one-off) ones. It is unclear whether all FRBs repeat and whether there are genuine non-repeating FRBs. We attempt to address these questions using Monte Carlo simulations. We define a parameter $T_c$ at which the accumulated number of non-repeating sources becomes comparable to the total number of the repeating sources, which is a good proxy to denote the intrinsic repeater fraction among FRBs. Assuming that both types of sources exist and that their burst energies follow power law distributions, we investigate how the {\em observed} repeater fraction evolves with time for different parameters. If the lifetime of repeaters is sufficiently long so that the evolutionary effect can be neglected within the observational time span, unless $T_c\to \infty$ (i.e. there is no genuine non-repeating FRB source) the observed repeater fraction should increase with time first, reach a peak, and then decline. The peak time $T_p$ and the peak fraction $F_{\mathrm{r},\mathrm{obs},\mathrm{p}}$ depend on $T_c$ and other repeating rate parameters. With the current data, we pose a lower limit $T_c>0.1$ d for reasonable parameter values. We predict that future continuous monitoring of FRBs with CHIME or similar wide-field radio telescopes would obtain an $F_{\mathrm{r},\mathrm{obs}}$ less than $0.04$. The detection of a smaller peak value $F_{\mathrm{r},\mathrm{obs},\mathrm{p}}<0.04$ in the near future would disfavor the ansatz that "all FRB sources repeat".

arXiv comment13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

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Cited by in corpus (23)

• The Physics of Fast Radio Bursts
• Characterizing the FRB host galaxy population and its connection to transients in the local and extragalactic Universe
• CHIME/FRB Discovery of 25 Repeating Fast Radio Burst Sources
• Inferring the Energy and Distance Distributions of Fast Radio Bursts using the First CHIME/FRB Catalog
• BURSTT: Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan
• No redshift evolution of non-repeating fast radio-burst rates
• Machine learning classification of CHIME fast radio bursts -- I. Supervised methods
• Synthesizing the repeating FRB population using frbpoppy
• Machine learning classification of CHIME fast radio bursts: II. Unsupervised Methods
• Can a Single Population Account for the Discriminant Properties in Fast Radio Bursts?
• The dispersion measure of Fast Radio Bursts host galaxies: estimation from cosmological simulations
• Deep optical observations contemporaneous with emission from the periodic FRB 180916.J0158+65
• New Insights into the Criteria of Fast Radio Burst in the Light of FRB 20121102A
• Detection of a bright burst from the repeating FRB 20201124A at 2 GHz
• Revisiting the energy distribution and formation rate of CHIME fast radio bursts
• A Possible Subclassification of Fast Radio Bursts
• Hyper-active repeating fast radio bursts from rotation modulated starquakes on magnetars
• Confining Burst Energy Function and Spectral Fringe Pattern of FRB 20121102A with Multifrequency Observations
• Earth-mass primordial black hole mergers as sources for non-repeating FRBs
• Fast Radio Bursts
• Hints of a universal width-energy relation for classified fast radio bursts
• Time-integrated constraint on neutrino flux of CHIME fast radio burst sources with 10-year IceCube point-source data
• Energy and waiting time distributions of FRB 121102 observed by FAST