Prospects for Detecting Fast Radio Bursts in Globular Clusters of Nearby Galaxies

Abstract

The recent detection of a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) in an old globular cluster in M81 challenges traditional FRB formation mechanisms based on magnetic activity in young neutron stars formed recently in core-collapse supernovae. Furthermore, the detection of this repeater in such a nearby galaxy implies a high local universe rate of similar events in globular clusters. Building off the properties inferred from the M81 FRB, we predict the number of FRB sources in nearby ($d\lesssim 20$Mpc) galaxies with large globular cluster systems known. Incorporating the uncertain burst energy distribution, we estimate the rate of bursts detectable in these galaxies by radio instruments such as FAST and MeerKat. Of all local galaxies, we find M87 is the best candidate for FRB detections. We predict M87's globular cluster system contains $\mathcal{O}(10)$ FRB sources at present and that a dedicated radio survey (by FAST or MeerKat) of $\mathcal{O}(10)$hr has a $90\%$ probability of detecting a globular cluster FRB in M87. The detection of even a handful of additional globular cluster FRBs would provide invaluable constraints on FRB mechanisms and population properties. Previous studies have demonstrated young neutron stars formed following collapse of dynamically-formed massive white dwarf binary mergers may provide the most natural mechanism for these bursts. We explore the white dwarf merger scenario using a suite of $N$-body cluster models, focusing in particular on such mergers in M87 clusters. We describe a number of outstanding features of this scenario that in principle may be testable with an ensemble of observed FRBs in nearby globular clusters.

22 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (50)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) Project
• A fast radio burst associated with a Galactic magnetar
• A bright millisecond-duration radio burst from a Galactic magnetar
• The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
• Formation of Double Neutron Star Systems
• Periodic activity from a fast radio burst source
• The Fundamental Performance of FAST with 19-beam Receiver at L Band
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey XV. The Formation Efficiencies of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies: The Effects of Mass and Environment
• MOCCA-SURVEY Database I: Coalescing Binary Black Holes Originating From Globular Clusters
• INTEGRAL discovery of a burst with associated radio emission from the magnetar SGR 1935+2154
• A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster
• Possible periodic activity in the repeating FRB 121102
• Host Galaxy Properties and Offset Distributions of Fast Radio Bursts: Implications for their Progenitors
• A nearby repeating fast radio burst in the direction of M81
• Repeating behaviour of FRB 121102: periodicity, waiting times and energy distribution
• The MeerKAT Telescope as a Pulsar Facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime
• Neutron star kicks by the gravitational tug-boat mechanism in asymmetric supernova explosions: progenitor and explosion dependence
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures
• The host galaxies and progenitors of Fast Radio Bursts localized with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
• Extensive Globular Cluster Systems Associated with Ultra Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster
• Globular Cluster Systems in Giant Ellipticals: the Mass/Metallicity Relation
• Periodicity in recurrent fast radio bursts and the origin of ultra long period magnetars
• Every interacting double white dwarf binary may merge
• Modeling Dense Star Clusters in the Milky Way and Beyond with the Cluster Monte Carlo Code
• Periodic Fast Radio Bursts from Luminous X-ray Binaries
• FRB-periodicity: mild pulsars in tight O/B-star binaries
• Precessing flaring magnetar as a source of repeating FRB 180916.J0158+65
• The effect of stellar-mass black holes on the structural evolution of massive star clusters
• The 60 pc Environment of FRB 20180916B
• Millisecond Pulsars and Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Evolutionary Models for the Remnant of the Merger of Two Carbon-Oxygen Core White Dwarfs
• A sudden period of high activity from repeating Fast Radio Burst 20201124A
• Implications of a rapidly varying FRB in a globular cluster of M81
• NGC5846-UDG1: A galaxy formed mostly by star formation in massive, extremely dense clumps of gas
• A comparative study of host galaxy properties between Fast Radio Bursts and stellar transients
• Dynamical Formation Channels for Fast Radio Bursts in Globular Clusters
• Accreting black hole binaries in globular clusters
• White Dwarf Subsystems in Core-Collapsed Globular Clusters
• CRAFTS for Fast Radio Bursts Extending the dispersion-fluence relation with new FRBs detected by FAST
• Old globular clusters in magellanic-type dwarf irregular galaxies
• Localized FRBs are Consistent with Magnetar Progenitors Formed in Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Luminosity-duration relations and luminosity functions of repeating and non-repeating fast radio bursts
• Does NGC 6397 contain an intermediate-mass black hole or a more diffuse inner subcluster?
• NGC 5128 globular cluster candidates out to 150 kpc: a comprehensive catalog from Gaia and ground based data
• Stellar graveyards: Clustering of compact objects in globular clusters NGC 3201 and NGC 6397
• The complex globular cluster system of the S0 galaxy NGC 4382 in the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster
• An Arecibo Search for Fast Radio Transients from M87

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Connecting the Young Pulsars in Milky Way Globular Clusters with White Dwarf Mergers and the M81 Fast Radio Burst
• The discovery and significance of fast radio bursts
• Limits on Simultaneous and Delayed Optical Emission from Well-localized Fast Radio Bursts
• The Northern Cross Fast Radio Burst project -- III. The FRB-magnetar connection in a sample of nearby galaxies
• Multi-wavelength and Multi-messenger Counterparts of Fast Radio Bursts
• A MeerKAT view of the pulsars in the globular cluster NGC 6522
• Single Millisecond Pulsars from Dynamical Interaction Processes in Dense Star Clusters
• Predicting the rate of fast radio bursts in globular clusters from binary black hole observations
• Comparing the Space Densities of Millisecond-Spin Magnetars and Fast X-Ray Transients
• TRAPUM pulsar and transient search in the Sextans A and B galaxies and discovery of background FRB 20210924D