Fast radio bursts may originate from nearby flaring stars

Abraham Loeb*, Yossi Shvartzvald, Dan Maoz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

100 Scopus citations

Abstract

Six cases of fast radio bursts (FRBs) have recently been discovered. The FRBs are bright (~0.1-1 Jy) and brief (~1ms) pulses of radio emission with dispersion measures (DMs) that exceed Galactic values, and hence FRBs have been interpreted to be at cosmological distances. We propose, instead, that FRBs are rare eruptions of flaring main-sequence stars within ~1 kpc. Rather than associating their excess DM with the intergalactic medium, we relate it to a blanket of coronal plasma around their host star. We have monitored at optical bands the stars within the radio beams of three of the known FRBs. In one field, we find a bright (V = 13.6 mag) variable star (0.2 mag peak to trough) with a main-sequence G-type spectrum and a period P = 7.8 h, likely a W-UMa-type contact binary. Analysis of our data outside of the FRB beams indicates a 5 per cent probability of finding, at random, a variable star of this brightness and amplitude within the FRB beams, but this could still be a chance coincidence. We find no unusual variable stars in the other two FRB fields. Further observations are needed to investigate if similar nearby (≲800 pc) stars are the sources of FRBs.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberslt177
Pages (from-to)L46-L50
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Volume439
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2014

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science FoundationAST-1312034
National Science Foundation1312034

    Keywords

    • Radio continuum: Stars
    • Stars: Coronae
    • Stars: Flare

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