Constraints on the Low-frequency Radio Emission of the Galactic FRB Source SGR 1935+2154

Abstract

We present a search for radio pulses from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154, a well-known source of fast radio bursts (FRBs), at $\sim$110 MHz using the Large Phased Array (LPA) of the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory. Data from two active periods in 2020 (March -- May and September -- November, with $\sim 3.5$ minutes of daily coverage) were analyzed with new methods tailored to both FRB-like single pulses and pulsar-like periodic signals. No significant FRB-like pulses were found. Using Monte Carlo simulations, $3\sigma$ upper limits were derived for the burst rate: for a log-normal energy distribution the limit is $\sim$${10}^{1.5}{\mathrm{d}}^{-1}$ for a mean of average monochromatic isotropic luminosity $L_{\nu ,\mathrm{mean}}\sim 1.3\times {10}^{29}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1}$ and a natural log-space scatter of $\sigma \sim 0.85$; while for a power-law distribution it is $\sim$${10}^{1.8}{\mathrm{d}}^{-1}$ for an index $\beta \lesssim 3.0$ and a minimum average monochromatic isotropic luminosity $L_{\nu ,\min }\lesssim 0.7\times {10}^{25}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1}$. When folded at the known 3.24781628 s period of SGR 1935+2154, a weak pulse was noted (S/N $<$ 3.16), but the significance is insufficient for a secure detection of the pulsar-like emission signal. A conservative upper limit on the average monochromatic isotropic luminosity of any possible periodic emission is $2.08\times {10}^{19}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1}$. Our results offer meaningful low-frequency upper limits on the burst rate of SGR 1935+2154, and hint for very faint pulsar-like radiation at meter wavelengths.

27 pages, 13 figures