Magnetospheric origin of a fast radio burst constrained using scintillation

Kenzie Nimmo; Ziggy Pleunis; Paz Beniamini; Pawan Kumar; Adam E Lanman; D Z Li; Robert Main; Mawson W Sammons; Shion Andrew; Mohit Bhardwaj; Shami Chatterjee; Alice P Curtin; Emmanuel Fonseca; B M Gaensler; Ronniy C Joseph; Zarif Kader; Victoria M Kaspi; Mattias Lazda; Calvin Leung; Kiyoshi W Masui; Ryan Mckinven; Daniele Michilli; Ayush Pandhi; Aaron B Pearlman; Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi; Ketan R Sand; Kaitlyn Shin; Kendrick Smith; Ingrid H Stairs

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08297-w

Magnetospheric origin of a fast radio burst constrained using scintillation

Nature. 2025 Jan;637(8044):48-51. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08297-w. Epub 2025 Jan 1.

Authors

Kenzie Nimmo¹, Ziggy Pleunis^{2

3

4}, Paz Beniamini^{5

6}, Pawan Kumar⁷, Adam E Lanman^{8

9}, D Z Li¹⁰, Robert Main^{11

12}, Mawson W Sammons^{11

12}, Shion Andrew^{8

9}, Mohit Bhardwaj¹³, Shami Chatterjee¹⁴, Alice P Curtin^{11

12}, Emmanuel Fonseca^{15

16}, B M Gaensler^{2

17

18}, Ronniy C Joseph^{11

12}, Zarif Kader^{11

12}, Victoria M Kaspi^{11

12}, Mattias Lazda^{2

17}, Calvin Leung¹⁹, Kiyoshi W Masui^{8

9}, Ryan Mckinven^{11

12}, Daniele Michilli^{8

9}, Ayush Pandhi^{2

17}, Aaron B Pearlman^{11

12}, Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi^{11

12}, Ketan R Sand^{11

12}, Kaitlyn Shin^{8

9}, Kendrick Smith²⁰, Ingrid H Stairs²¹

Affiliations

¹ MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. knimmo@mit.edu.
² Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁴ ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, Israel.
⁶ Astrophysics Research Center of the Open university (ARCO), The Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, Israel.
⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁸ MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
¹¹ Trottier Space Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹² Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹³ McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
¹⁴ Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
¹⁶ Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁸ David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
²⁰ Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
²¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

PMID: 39743602
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08297-w

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are microsecond-to-millisecond-duration radio transients¹ that originate mostly from extragalactic distances. The FRB emission mechanism remains debated, with two main competing classes of models: physical processes that occur within close proximity to a central engine^2-4; and relativistic shocks that propagate out to large radial distances^5-8. The expected emission-region sizes are notably different between these two types of models⁹. Here we present the measurement of two mutually coherent scintillation scales in the frequency spectrum of FRB 20221022A¹⁰: one originating from a scattering screen located within the Milky Way, and the second originating from its host galaxy or local environment. We use the scattering media as an astrophysical lens to constrain the size of the observed FRB lateral emission region⁹ to ≲3 × 10⁴ kilometres. This emission size is inconsistent with the expectation for the large-radial-distance models^5-8, and is more naturally explained by an emission process that operates within or just beyond the magnetosphere of a central compact object. Recently, FRB 20221022A was found to exhibit an S-shaped polarization angle swing¹⁰, most likely originating from a magnetospheric emission process. The scintillation results presented in this work independently support this conclusion, while highlighting scintillation as a useful tool in our understanding of FRB emission physics and progenitors.