The Northern Cross Fast Radio Burst project -- III. The FRB-magnetar connection in a sample of nearby galaxies

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond radio transients observed at cosmological distances. The nature of their progenitors is still a matter of debate, although magnetars are invoked by most models. The proposed FRB-magnetar connection was strengthened by the discovery of an FRB-like event from the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154. In this work, we aim to investigate how prevalent magnetars such as SGR J1935+2154 are within FRB progenitors. We carried out an FRB search in a sample of seven nearby (< 12 Mpc) galaxies with the Northern Cross radio telescope for a total of 692 h. We detected one 1.8 ms burst in the direction of M101 with a fluence of $58\pm 5$ Jy ms. Its dispersion measure of 303 pc cm${}^{-3}$ places it most-likely beyond M101. Considering that no significant detection comes indisputably from the selected galaxies, we place a 38 yr${}^{-1}$ upper limit on the total burst rate (i.e. including the whole sample) at the 95\% confidence level. This upper limit constrains the event rate per magnetar ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{mag}}<0.42$ magnetar${}^{-1}$ yr${}^{-1}$ or, if combined with literature observations of a similar sample of nearby galaxies, it yields a joint constraint of ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{mag}}<0.25$ magnetar${}^{-1}$ yr${}^{-1}$. We also provide the first constraints on the expected rate of FRBs hypothetically originating from ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources, since some of the galaxies observed during our observational campaign host confirmed ULXs. We obtain $<13$ yr${}^{-1}$ per ULX for the total sample of galaxies observed. Our results indicate that bursts with energies $E>10^{34}$ erg from magnetars like SGR J1935+2154 appear more rarely compared to previous observations and further disfavour them as unique progenitors for the cosmological FRB population, leaving more space open to the contribution from a population of more exotic magnetars, not born via core-collapsed supernovae.

arXiv comment9 pages, 4 figures, published in A&A

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• An X-ray Census of Fast Radio Burst Host Galaxies: Constraints on AGN and X-ray Counterparts
• The Northern Cross Fast Radio Burst project IV. Multi-wavelength study of the actively repeating FRB 20220912A
• The Northern Cross Fast Radio Burst project: V. Search for transient radio emission from Galactic magnetars