Fast radio bursts by high-frequency synchrotron maser emission generated at the reverse shock of a powerful magnetar flare

Abstract

We consider a magnetar flare model for fast radio bursts (FRBs). We show that millisecond burst of sufficient power can be generated by synchrotron maser emission ignited at the reverse shock propagating through the weakly magnetized material that forms the magnetar flare. If the maser emission is generated in an anisotropic regime (due to the geometry of the production region or presence of an intense external source of stimulating photons) the duration of the maser flashes is similar to the magnetar flare duration even if the shock front radius is large. Our scenario allows relaxing the requirements for several key parameters: the magnetic field strength at the production site, luminosity of the flare, and the production site bulk Lorentz factor. To check the feasibility of this model, we study the statistical relation between powerful magnetar flares and the rate of FRBs. The expected ratio is derived by convoluting the redshift-dependent magnetar density with their flare luminosity function above the energy limit determined by the FRB detection threshold. We obtain that only a small fraction, $\sim 10^{-5}$, of powerful magnetar flares trigger FRBs. This ratio agrees surprisingly well with our estimates: we obtained that $10\%$ of magnetars should be in the evolutionary phase suitable for the production of FRBs, and only $10^{-4}$ of all flares are expected to be weakly magnetized, which is a necessary condition for the high-frequency maser emission.

16 pages, 2 figure, ApJ in press

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