Magnetic Field Reversal around an Active Fast Radio Burst

Abstract

The environment of actively repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been shown to be complex and varying (Michilli et al. 2018). The recently localized FRB~20190520B (Niu et al. 2021) is extremely active, has the largest confirmed host dispersion measure, and is only the second FRB source associated with a compact, persistent radio source (PRS). The main tracer of the magneto-ionic environments is the rotation measure (RM), a path-integral of the line-of-sight component of magnetic field strength (B) and electron density, which does not allow a direct probe of the B-field configuration. Here we report direct evidence for a B-field reversal based on the observed sign change and extreme variation of FRB~20190520B's RM, which changed from +10000 rad m^{-2} to -16000 rad m^{-2} between June 2021 and January 2022. Such extreme RM reversal has never been observed before in any FRB nor in any astronomical object. The implied short-term change of the B-field configuration in or around the FRB could be due to the vicinity of massive black holes, or a magnetized companion star in binary systems, or a young supernova remnant along the line of sight.