Large-Scale Clustering as a Probe of the Origin and the Host Environment of Fast Radio Bursts [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1702.07085


We propose to use degree-scale angular clustering of fast radio bursts (FRBs) to identify their origin and the host galaxy population. We study the information content in auto-correlation of the angular positions and dispersion measures (DM) and in cross-correlation with galaxies. We show that the cross-correlation with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies will place stringent constraints on the mean physical quantities associated with FRBs. If ~10,000 FRBs are detected with <deg resolution in the SDSS field, the clustering analysis can constrain the global abundance of free electrons at $z<1$, the bias factor of FRB host galaxies, and the mean near-source dispersion measure, with fractional errors (with a $68\%$ confidence level) of $\sim5 \%, \sim 20 \%$, and $\sim70 \%$, respectively. The delay time distribution of FRB sources can be also determined by combining the clustering and the probability distribution function of dispersion measure. Our approach will be complementary to high-resolution ($\ll {\rm deg}$) event localization using e.g., VLA and VLBI for identifying the origin of FRBs and the source environment. We strongly encourage future observational programs such as CHIME, UTMOST, HIRAX to survey FRBs in the SDSS field.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Shirasaki, K. Kashiyama and N. Yoshida
Fri, 24 Feb 17
25/50

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, To be submitted to Phys. Rev. D