On the Fast Radio Burst and Persistent Radio Source Populations

Law, C. J.; Connor, L.; Aggarwal, K.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2110.15323

Cited by 1 publication

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References 101 publications

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“…Studies of the host galaxies and environments of accurately localised fast radio bursts (FRBs) offer perhaps our best opportunity to discern FRB progenitors. 1 This is especially the case given the absence of easily observable multiwavelength counterparts to FRBs (Chen et al 2020) and FRB sources (e.g., Law et al 2021). The first localised repeating FRB source (Chatterjee et al 2017) and its recently discovered analogue (Niu et al 2021) originate from regions of significant star-formation within dwarf galaxies, and are associated with highly magnetised environments and persistent radio sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Selection Biases on the Analysis of Localised Fast Radio Bursts

Seebeck¹,

Ravi²,

Connor³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The objects that emit extragalatic fast radio bursts (FRBs) remain unidentified. Studies of the host galaxies and environments of accurately localised ( 1 arcsec) FRBs promise to deliver critical insights into the nature of their progenitors. Here we demonstrate the effects of observational selection biases on analyses of the distributions of FRB host-galaxy properties (including star-formation rate, SFR, and stellar mass, 𝑀 * ), and on the distributions of FRB offsets from the centres of their hosts. We consider the effects of "radio selection", wherein FRBs with larger dispersion measures and scattering timescales are less likely to be detected, and the effects of "optical selection", wherein FRBs with fainter host galaxies are more likely to have unidentified or mis-identified hosts. We develop a plausible, illustrative model for these effects in observations of FRBs and their host galaxies by combining the output catalogues of a semi-analytic galaxy formation model with a recently developed algorithm to associate FRBs with host galaxies (PATH). We find that optical selection biases are most important for the host-galaxy 𝑀 * and SFR distributions, and that radio selection biases are most important for the distribution of FRB projected physical offsets. For our fiducial simulation of FRBs at 𝑧 < 0.5, the selection biases cause the median host-galaxy SFR to be increased by ∼ 0.3 dex, and the median 𝑀 * by ∼ 0.5 dex. The median projected physical offset is increased by ∼ 2 kpc (∼ 0.25 dex). These effects are sufficiently large so as to merit careful consideration in studies of localised FRBs, and our simulations provide a guide towards their mitigation.

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