Pinpointing the Science of Fast Radio Bursts

2007年首次发现来自太空的无线电辐射爆发，持续时间仅为千分之几秒。这些事件现在被称为“快速射电爆发”(FRB)，被“自然”杂志2016年的一篇专题文章认为是当今天文学中“最令人费解的谜团”。大约有20多个FRB已经被探测到，并被证明来自我们银河系之外的遥远地方。由西弗吉尼亚大学(WVU)领导的一个研究小组将利用世界上最强大的射电望远镜阵列--NSF的卡尔·G·扬斯基甚大阵列(VLA)的一种新能力，在三年内探测和研究数十个FRB。第一次，这些天文学家将能够准确地绘制出FRB的位置、距离和环境，并识别它们出现的星系。这将使研究人员能够毫不含糊地找到关于快速射电暴起源的基本问题的答案，并利用它们更好地理解宇宙。该团队还将使数千名高中生直接参与这项实验的兴奋和活力，使其成为西弗吉尼亚大学“脉冲星搜索合作实验室”教育和外展网络的一部分。该计划将为学生提供接触FRB候选人的途径，他们可以与之一起评估和发现新事件，并直接参与研究和发现过程。基于西弗吉尼亚大学的研究团队将使用VLA提供FRB的Arc第二本地化，这将是第一次允许详细研究FRB的起源和性质。观测将开始解决这一现象是否有不止一个前身，以及如何将FRB用作工具来探测星际介质和其他星系的组成。对FRB主机的多波长研究将为FRB后续科学的未来奠定坚实的统计基础，该科学将持续数年。该计划的一个关键组成部分将是自动识别和公开发布可信的短暂事件，这将为其他科学家和设施提供立即使用结果的机会，进一步推动时间域科学。

Bursts of radio emission from space lasting only a few thousandths of a second were first discovered in 2007. These events, now called "fast radio bursts" (FRBs), were considered in a 2016 Nature magazine feature to be "the most perplexing mystery" in astronomy today.   Around two dozen FRBs have been detected and have been shown to come from far outside our Galaxy.  A research team led by West Virginia University (WVU) will make use of a new capability of the world's most powerful radio telescope array, NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), to detect and study several dozen FRBs over three years.  For the first time, these astronomers will be able to accurately map out the locations, distances, and environments of FRBs and identify the galaxies in which they arise. This will allow the researchers to unequivocally find answers to fundamental questions about fast radio burst origins and use them to better understand the Universe. The team will also directly engage thousands of high school students in the excitement and dynamism of the experiment by making it part of WVU's "Pulsar Search Collaboratory" education and outreach network. This program will provide students access to the FRB candidates with which they can assess and discover new events and directly engage in the research and discovery process.The WVU-based research team will use the VLA to provide arcsecond localizations of FRBs, which will, for the first time, allow their origins and nature to be studied in detail. The observations will begin to address whether the phenomenon has more than one progenitor and how FRBs can be used as tools to probe the intergalactic medium and the makeup of other galaxies. The multi-wavelength studies of FRB hosts will lay a statistically strong foundation for the future of FRB follow-up science that will endure for years into the future.  A critical component of the program will be automatic identification and public release of confident transitory events, which will open opportunities to other scientists and facilities to use the results immediately, further advancing time-domain science.