Periodicity in recurrent fast radio bursts and the origin of ultralong period magnetars
Abstract
The recurrent fast radio burst FRB 180916 was recently shown to exhibit a 16-d period (with possible aliasing) in its bursting activity. Given magnetars as widely considered FRB sources, this period has been attributed to precession of the magnetar spin axis or the orbit of a binary companion. Here, we make the simpler connection to a rotational period, an idea observationally motivated by the 6.7-h period of the Galactic magnetar candidate, 1E 161348–5055. We explore three physical mechanisms that could lead to the creation of ultralong period magnetars: (i) enhanced spin-down due to episodic mass-loaded charged particle winds (e.g. as may accompany giant flares), (ii) angular momentum kicks from giant flares, and (iii) fallback leading to long-lasting accretion discs. We show that particle winds and fallback accretion can potentially lead to a sub-set of the magnetar population with ultralong periods, sufficiently long to accommodate FRB 180916 or 1E 161348–5055. If confirmed, such periods implicate magnetars in relatively mature states (ages 1−10 kyr) and which possessed large internal magnetic fields at birth B_(int) ≳ 10¹⁶ G. In the low-twist magnetar model for FRBs, such long period magnetars may dominate FRB production for repeaters at lower isotropic-equivalent energies and broaden the energy distribution beyond that expected for a canonical population of magnetars, which terminate their magnetic activity at shorter periods P ≲ 10 s.
Additional Information
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). Accepted 2020 June 17. Received 2020 May 26; in original form 2020 March 27. Published: 23 June 2020. PB thanks Wenbin Lu for helpful discussions. The research of PB was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF5076. ZW thanks Alice Harding, Demos Kazanas, and Andrey Timokhin for helpful discussions. ZW acknowledges support by the NASA Postdoctoral Program. BDM acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation (grant #606260). Data Availability: The data produced in this study will be shared on a reasonable request to the authors.Attached Files
Published - staa1783.pdf
Submitted - 2003.12509.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:b20f019d94b604d438f3636df82478d3
|
1.1 MB | Preview Download |
md5:74d0fcc0c8f54e6e6c4df334b80b4cc7
|
1.5 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Alternative title
- Periodicity in recurrent fast radio bursts and the origin of ultra long period magnetars
- Eprint ID
- 104118
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200629-094357590
- GBMF5076
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- NASA Postdoctoral Program
- 606260
- Simons Foundation
- Created
-
2020-06-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field