Host Galaxy Properties and Offset Distributions of Fast Radio Bursts: Implications for Their Progenitors

By K. Heintz, J. Xavier Prochaska, S. Simha, E. Platts, W. Fong, N. Tejos, S. Ryder, Kshitij Aggerwal, Shivani Bhandari, C. Day and 8 more. Astrophysical Journal, 2020

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We present observations and detailed characterizations of five new host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs) discovered with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and localized to ≲1″. Combining these galaxies with FRB hosts from the literature, we introduce criteria based on the probability of chance coincidence to define a subsample of 10 highly confident associations (at z = 0.03–0.52), 3 of which correspond to known repeating FRBs. Overall, the FRB-host galaxies exhibit a broad, continuous range of color (Mu − Mr = 0.9–2.0), stellar mass (M⋆ = 108 − 6 × 1010 M⊙), and star formation rate (SFR = 0.05–10 M⊙ yr−1) spanning the full parameter space occupied by z < 0.5 galaxies. However, they do not track the color–magnitude, SFR–M⋆, nor BPT diagrams of field galaxies surveyed at similar redshifts. There is an excess of “green valley” galaxies and an excess of emission-line ratios indicative of a harder radiation field than that generated by star formation alone. From the observed stellar mass distribution, we rule out the hypothesis that FRBs strictly track stellar mass in galaxies (>99% c.l.). We measure a median offset of 3.3 kpc from the FRB to the estimated center of the host galaxies and compare the host-burst offset distribution and other properties with the distributions of long- and short-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs and SGRBs), core-collapse supernovae (CC-SNe), and SNe Ia. This analysis rules out galaxies hosting LGRBs (faint, star-forming galaxies) as common hosts for FRBs (>95% c.l.). Other transient channels (SGRBs, CC-, and SNe Ia) have host-galaxy properties and offsets consistent with the FRB distributions. All of the data and derived quantities are made publicly available on a dedicated website and repository.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0e66dfa32147f87d833bcd604f8c99dd0b39ccf

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Citations in the corpus

Fast Radio Burst Morphology in the First CHIME/FRB Catalog (2021, background): “Though there are small disparities between the host galaxies of the two classes, robust conclusions regarding their differences cannot yet be drawn owing to the small number of repeating sources with host galaxy associations (Bhandari et al. 2020; Heintz et al. 2020).”
Characterizing the Fast Radio Burst Host Galaxy Population and its Connection to Transients in the Local and Extragalactic Universe (2021, methodology): “Finally, the repeating FRBs 20190711A and 20201124A are observed to originate in typical star-forming galaxies at their respective redshifts (Heintz et al. 2020; Fong et al. 2021; Ravi et al. 2021).”
A Nearby Repeating Fast Radio Burst in the Direction of M81 (2021, background): “This would be at odds with the offset distribution of the progenitors of long gamma-ray bursts and superluminous supernovae, which are found close to the centers of their respective hosts (Lunnan et al. 2015; Blanchard et al. 2016; Heintz et al. 2020; Mannings et al. 2020).”
Fast radio bursts at the dawn of the 2020s (2021, unknown): “2018; Michilli et al. 2018). Cho et al. (2020) investigate a one-off FRB in detail and find complicated polarimetric properties in four narrow sub-bursts. They also find variable apparent rotation measure (RM) and DM between these sub-bursts. Day et al. (2020) investigate the polarimetric properties”