Searching for Fast Radio Bursts in Messier 82

Jordan Stanley,* Susie Paine,* and Duncan Lorimer
Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation No.: 114

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Physical Sciences (Poster Presentations)

Student’s Major: Physics

Fast Radio Bursts, also known as FRBs, are bright electromagnetic pulses of astrophysical origin. Since their discovery in 2007, over 700 FRBs have been documented, yet there is still relatively little known about them. One of those detections was successfully traced back to the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154, where magnetars are a subclass of neutron stars that have magnetic fields approximately 1,000 times stronger than neutron stars. Starburst galaxies, like Messier 82 (M82), have a very high rate of star formation. This suggests that M82 should in principle have a relatively high density of magnetars. Taking this hypothesis, we are currently using Green Bank Observatory's 20-meter radio telescope to search for FRBs in M82. The project is still ongoing, and after ~17 days of observation, no verifiable FRB detections have been made. We currently expect to find at least one FRB by the time ~30 observation days have been reached.

Funding: Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement RCSA COTTRELL SCHOLAR SEED (ID#24299)

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: the WVU Astrophysics REU (Loren Anderson)