Microphysics of Circumgalactic Turbulence Probed by Fast Radio Bursts and Quasars

Abstract

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is poorly constrained at the sub-parsec scales relevant to turbulent energy dissipation and regulation of multi-phase structure. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are sensitive to small-scale plasma density fluctuations, which can induce multipath propagation (scattering). The amount of scattering depends on the density fluctuation spectrum, including its amplitude $C_{\mathrm{n}}^2$, spectral index $\beta$, and dissipation scale $l_{\mathrm{i}}$. We use quasar observations of CGM turbulence at $\gtrsim$ pc scales to infer $C_{\mathrm{n}}^2$, finding it to be $10^{-16}\lesssim C_{\mathrm{n}}^2\lesssim 10^{-9}$ m${}^{-20/3}$ for hot ($T>10^6$ K) gas and $10^{-8}\lesssim C_{\mathrm{n}}^2\lesssim 10^{-4}$ m${}^{-20/3}$ for cool ($10^4\lesssim T\lesssim 10^5$ K) gas, depending on the gas sound speed and density. These values of $C_{\mathrm{n}}^2$ are much smaller than those inferred in the interstellar medium at similar physical scales. The resulting scattering delays from the hot CGM are negligible ($\ll 1$ $\mu$s at 1 GHz), but are more detectable from the cool gas as either radio pulse broadening or scintillation, depending on the observing frequency and sightline geometry. Joint quasar-FRB observations of individual galaxies can yield lower limits on $l_{\mathrm{i}}$, even if the CGM is not a significant scattering site. An initial comparison between quasar and FRB observations (albeit for different systems) suggests $l_{\mathrm{i}}\gtrsim 750$ km in $\sim 10^4$ K gas in order for the quasar and FRB constraints to be consistent. If a foreground CGM is completely ruled out as a source of scattering along an FRB sightline then $l_{\mathrm{i}}$ may be comparable to the smallest cloud sizes ($\lesssim$ pc) inferred from photoionization modeling of quasar absorption lines.

arXiv comment21 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (51)

• The Circumgalactic Medium
• Comparing the statistics of interstellar turbulence in simulations and observations: Solenoidal versus compressive turbulence forcing
• Astrophysical gyrokinetics: kinetic and fluid turbulent cascades in magnetized weakly collisional plasmas
• The COS-Halos Survey: Physical Conditions and Baryonic Mass in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• Dense magnetized plasma associated with a fast radio burst
• Compressible MHD Turbulence in Interstellar Plasmas
• The low density and magnetization of a massive galaxy halo exposed by a fast radio burst
• Small Scale Energy Cascade of the Solar Wind Turbulence
• A Characteristic Scale for Cold Gas
• Extending Big Power Law in the Sky with Turbulence Spectra from WHAM data
• Constraining the Milky Way's Hot Gas Halo with OVII and OVII Emission Lines
• Probing Galactic Halos with Fast Radio Bursts
• Supersonic turbulence in the ISM: stellar extinction determinations as probes of the structure and dynamics of dark clouds
• The Impact of Enhanced Halo Resolution on the Simulated Circumgalactic Medium
• Resolving small-scale cold circumgalactic gas in TNG50
• Solar wind turbulent spectrum at plasma kinetic scales
• Multiphase Gas and the Fractal Nature of Radiative Turbulent Mixing Layers
• The sonic scale revealed by the world's largest supersonic turbulence simulation
• Spectropolarimetric analysis of FRB 181112 at microsecond resolution: Implications for Fast Radio Burst emission mechanism
• A new density variance - Mach number relation for subsonic and supersonic, isothermal turbulence
• The Column Density, Kinematics, and Thermal State of Metal-Bearing Gas within the Virial Radius of z~2 Star-Forming Galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• Temporal Smearing of Transient Radio Sources by the Intergalactic Medium
• Simulations of radiative turbulent mixing layers
• Survival and mass growth of cold gas in a turbulent, multiphase medium
• Scatter broadening measurements of 124 pulsars at 327 MHz
• Radiative Mixing Layers: Insights from Turbulent Combustion
• The relation between gas density and velocity power spectra in galaxy clusters: qualitative treatment and cosmological simulations
• Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda
• Suppressed effective viscosity in the bulk intergalactic plasma
• On the Structure of Hot Gas in Halos: Implications for the Lx-Tx Relation & Missing Baryons
• An FRB Sent Me a DM: Constraining the Electron Column of the Milky Way Halo with Fast Radio Burst Dispersion Measures from CHIME/FRB
• The Large Dispersion and Scattering of FRB 20190520B are Dominated by the Host Galaxy
• Ambient Column Densities of Highly Ionized Oxygen in Precipitation-Limited Circumgalactic Media
• Redshift Estimation and Constraints on Intergalactic and Interstellar Media from Dispersion and Scattering of Fast Radio Bursts
• Constraining Galaxy Haloes from the Dispersion and Scattering of Fast Radio Bursts and Pulsars
• Turbulence in the intracluster medium: simulations, observables & thermodynamics
• A bright, high rotation-measure FRB that skewers the M33 halo
• Turbulent density and pressure fluctuations in the stratified intracluster medium
• Velocity structure functions in multiphase turbulence: interpreting kinematics of H$\alpha$ filaments in cool core clusters
• Radio wave scattering by circumgalactic cool gas clumps
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) V: On the Thermodynamic Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at $z<1$
• X-ray and SZ constraints on the properties of hot CGM
• Regimes in astrophysical lensing: refractive optics, diffractive optics, and the Fresnel scale
• Empirical constraints on the turbulence in QSO host nebulae from velocity structure function measurements
• The spectrum of magnetized turbulence in the interstellar medium
• Scintillation Arc from FRB 20220912A
• The Apertif Radio Transient System (ARTS): Design, Commissioning, Data Release, and Detection of the first 5 Fast Radio Bursts
• Multiphase condensation in cluster halos: interplay of cooling, buoyancy and mixing
• FRB Line-of-sight Ionization Measurement From Lightcone AAOmega Mapping Survey: the First Data Release
• Refractive lensing of scintillating FRBs by sub-parsec cloudlets in the multi-phase CGM
• The Effect of Gravitational Lensing on Fast Transient Event Rates

Cited by in corpus (3)

• CGM cloud sizes from refractive FRB scattering
• A $\tau -$DM relation for FRB hosts?
• Superluminal Wave Activation at Relativistic Magnetized Shocks