A repeating fast radio burst associated with a persistent radio source

C-H Niu; K Aggarwal; D Li; X Zhang; S Chatterjee; C-W Tsai; W Yu; C J Law; S Burke-Spolaor; J M Cordes; Y-K Zhang; S K Ocker; J-M Yao; P Wang; Y Feng; Y Niino; C Bochenek; M Cruces; L Connor; J-A Jiang; S Dai; R Luo; G-D Li; C-C Miao; J-R Niu; R Anna-Thomas; J Sydnor; D Stern; W-Y Wang; M Yuan; Y-L Yue; D-J Zhou; Z Yan; W-W Zhu; B Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04755-5

A repeating fast radio burst associated with a persistent radio source

Nature. 2022 Jun;606(7916):873-877. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04755-5. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Authors

C-H Niu^#¹, K Aggarwal^#^{2

3}, D Li^#^{4

5

6}, X Zhang^{7

8}, S Chatterjee⁹, C-W Tsai¹, W Yu¹⁰, C J Law^{11

12}, S Burke-Spolaor^{2

3

13}, J M Cordes⁹, Y-K Zhang^{1

7}, S K Ocker⁹, J-M Yao¹⁴, P Wang¹, Y Feng^{1

7

15}, Y Niino^{16

17}, C Bochenek¹⁸, M Cruces¹⁹, L Connor¹⁸, J-A Jiang²⁰, S Dai^{21

22}, R Luo²¹, G-D Li^{1

7}, C-C Miao^{1

7}, J-R Niu^{1

7}, R Anna-Thomas^{2

3}, J Sydnor^{2

3}, D Stern²³, W-Y Wang^{1

24}, M Yuan^{1

7}, Y-L Yue¹, D-J Zhou^{1

7}, Z Yan⁸, W-W Zhu¹, B Zhang²⁵

Affiliations

¹ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
³ Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
⁴ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. dili@nao.cas.cn.
⁵ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. dili@nao.cas.cn.
⁶ Research Center for Intelligent Computing Platforms, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou, China. dili@nao.cas.cn.
⁷ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁸ Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁹ Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. wenfei@shao.ac.cn.
¹¹ Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. claw@astro.caltech.edu.
¹² Owens Valley Radio Observatory, California Institute of Technology, Big Pine, CA, USA. claw@astro.caltech.edu.
¹³ Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁴ Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China.
¹⁵ Research Center for Intelligent Computing Platforms, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou, China.
¹⁶ Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
¹⁷ Research Center for the Early Universe, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
¹⁸ Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany.
²⁰ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.
²¹ CSIRO Space and Astronomy, Epping, New South Wales, Australia.
²² School of Science, Western Sydney University, Penrith South DC, New South Wales, Australia.
²³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁴ Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
²⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The dispersive sweep of fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been used to probe the ionized baryon content of the intergalactic medium¹, which is assumed to dominate the total extragalactic dispersion. Although the host-galaxy contributions to the dispersion measure appear to be small for most FRBs², in at least one case there is evidence for an extreme magneto-ionic local environment^3,4 and a compact persistent radio source⁵. Here we report the detection and localization of the repeating FRB 20190520B, which is co-located with a compact, persistent radio source and associated with a dwarf host galaxy of high specific-star-formation rate at a redshift of 0.241 ± 0.001. The estimated host-galaxy dispersion measure of approximately [Formula: see text] parsecs per cubic centimetre, which is nearly an order of magnitude higher than the average of FRB host galaxies^2,6, far exceeds the dispersion-measure contribution of the intergalactic medium. Caution is thus warranted in inferring redshifts for FRBs without accurate host-galaxy identifications.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't