Probing the Intergalactic Medium with Fast Radio Bursts
Abstract
The recently discovered fast radio bursts (FRBs), presumably of extragalactic origin, have the potential to become a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We point out a few such potential applications. We provide expressions for the dispersion measure and rotation measure as a function of redshift, and we discuss the sensitivity of these measures to the He II reionization and the IGM magnetic field. Finally, we calculate the microlensing effect from an isolated, extragalactic stellar-mass compact object on the FRB spectrum. The time delays between the two lensing images will induce constructive and destructive interference, leaving a specific imprint on the spectra of FRBs. With a high all-sky rate, a large statistical sample of FRBs is expected to make these applications feasible.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Astronomical Society. Received 2014 September 9; accepted 2014 October 13; published 2014 November 25. We thank Shude Mao for useful comments. Z.Z. was partially supported by NSF grant AST-1208891 and NASA grant NNX14AC89G. M.J. acknowledges the support of the Washington Research Foundation through its Data Science Chair and the University of Washington Provost's Initiative in Data-Intensive Discovery. E.O.O. is incumbent of the Arye Dissentshik career development chair and is grateful to support by grants from the Willner Family Leadership Institute Ilan Gluzman (Secaucus, NJ), Israeli Ministry of Science, Israel Science Foundation, Minerva and the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee, and The Israel Science Foundation. S.R.K. thanks the hospitality of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). The sylvan surroundings and verdant intellectual ambiance of IAS resulted in a fecund mini-sabbatical stay (Fall 2007).Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_797_1_71.pdf
Submitted - 1409.3244v2.pdf
Erratum - Zheng_2016p83.pdf
Files
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 53174
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150105-110011210
- AST-1208891
- NSF
- NNX14AC89G
- NASA
- Washington Research Foundation
- University of Washington
- Willner Family Leadership Institute Ilan Gluzman
- Ministry of Science (Israel)
- Israel Science Foundation
- Minerva
- I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee
- Created
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2015-01-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Space Astrophysics Laboratory, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences