Issue |
A&A
Volume 690, October 2024
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A219 | |
Number of page(s) | 11 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450271 | |
Published online | 10 October 2024 |
The Northern Cross Fast Radio Burst project
IV. Multi-wavelength study of the actively repeating FRB 20220912A
1
INAF-Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Via Piero Gobetti 101, Bologna, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/2, 40129 Bologna, Italy
3
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, Black River Park, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, Cape Town 7925, South Africa
4
Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, PO Box 94 Makhanda 6140, South Africa
5
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Via della Scienza 5, I-09047 Selargius, (CA), Italy
6
Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, 439 92 Onsala, Sweden
7
ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
8
Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia, Piazza della Vittoria 15, 27100 Pavia, Italy
9
Department of Physics, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 14, 38123, Povo, (TN), Italy
10
Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy (ISSA), University of Malta, Msida, MSD 2080, Malta
11
INAF/IAPS, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Roma (RM), Italy
12
Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma (RM), Italy
13
SSDC/ASI, Via del Politecnico snc, I-00133 Roma (RM), Italy
14
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone, (RM), Italy
Received:
5
April
2024
Accepted:
3
July
2024
Context. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are energetic, millisecond-duration radio pulses observed at extragalactic distances and whose origins are still a subject of heated debate. A fraction of the FRB population have shown repeating bursts, however it’s still unclear whether these represent a distinct class of sources.
Aims. We investigated the bursting behaviour of FRB 20220912A, one of the most active repeating FRBs known thus far. In particular, we focused on its burst energy distribution, linked to the source energetics, and its emission spectrum, with the latter directly related to the underlying emission mechanism.
Methods. We monitored FRB 20220912A at 408 MHz with the Northern Cross radio telescope and at 1.4 GHz using the 32-m Medicina Grueff radio telescope. Additionally, we conducted 1.2 GHz observations taken with the upgraded Giant Meter Wave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) searching for a persistent radio source coincident with FRB 20220912A, and included high energy observations in the 0.3–10 keV, 0.4–100 MeV and 0.03–30 GeV energy range.
Results. We report 16 new bursts from FRB 20220912A at 408 MHz during the period between October 16th 2022 and December 31st 2023. Their cumulative spectral energy distribution follows a power law with slope αE = −1.3 ± 0.2 and we measured a repetition rate of 0.19 ± 0.03 hr−1 for bursts having a fluence of ℱ ≥ 17 Jy ms. Furthermore, we report no detections at 1.4 GHz for ℱ ≥ 20 Jy ms. These non-detections imply an upper limit of β < −2.3, with β being the 408 MHz – 1.4 GHz spectral index of FRB 20220912A. This is inconsistent with positive β values found for the only two known cases in which an FRB has been detected in separate spectral bands. We find that FRB 20220912A shows a decline of four orders of magnitude in its bursting activity at 1.4 GHz over a timescale of one year, while remaining active at 408 MHz. The cumulative spectral energy distribution (SED) shows a flattening for spectral energy Eν ≥ 1031 erg Hz−1, a feature seen thus far in only two hyperactive repeaters. In particular, we highlight a strong similarity between FRB 20220912A and FRB 20201124A, with respect to both the energy and repetition rate ranges. We also find a radio continuum source with 240 ± 36 μJy flux density at 1.2 GHz, centered on the FRB 20220912A coordinates. Finally, we place an upper limit on the γ to radio burst efficiency η to be η < 1.5 × 109 at 99.7% confidence level, in the 0.4–30 MeV energy range.
Conclusions. The strong similarity between the cumulative energy distributions of FRB 20220912A and FRB 20201124A indicate that bursts from these sources are generated via similar emission mechanisms. Our upper limit on β suggests that the spectrum of FRB 20220912A is intrinsically narrow-band. The radio continuum source detected at 1.2 GHz is likely due to a star formation environment surrounding the FRB, given the absence of a source compact on millisecond scales brighter than 48 μJy beam−1. Finally, the upper limit on the ratio between the γ and radio burst fluence disfavours a giant flare origin for the radio bursts unlike observed for the Galactic magnetar SGR 1806-20.
Key words: methods: data analysis / methods: observational / stars: magnetars / radio continuum: galaxies
© The Authors 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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