Collaborative Research: The Definitive Follow-up Campaign for Fast Radio Bursts

合作研究：快速射电爆发的最终后续行动

• 批准号: 2206494
• 负责人: Wen-fai Fong
• 金额: $ 3.97万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206494&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Definitive; Follow; up

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient pulses of radio emission lasting only milliseconds. They are known to be coming from galaxies outside our own and are now a highly intense area of astrophysical pursuit, with over a thousand FRBs detected to date. A research team between the University of California Santa Cruz, Northwestern University and the Maria Mitchell Observatory (MMO) forms the core of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up (F4) team, which has been funded by the NSF since 2019 to observe FRBs and associate them with their host galaxies. This has enabled the team to start to use FRB signals to probe the universe and to make a new census of the baryons (subatomic particles, mostly protons and neutrons) in a highly diffuse state outside of galaxies throughout the universe. This current NSF award extends this work to allow F4 to increase its observational impact by an order of magnitude through follow-up observations of two new surveys of precisely localized FRBs, allowing them to study cosmology, baryon distribution and identify FRB progenitors. This award will also support students in a postbaccalaureate 'Bridge' program hosted at the MMO for attracting and retaining talented and traditionally underrepresented students, with a long-term goal of increasing their participation and leadership in STEM fields. All of the investigators will engage in the many outreach activities of the MMO.During the period of this grant, the F4 team will acquire, analyze, and disseminate deep, multi-band imaging and spectroscopy on the host galaxies of hundreds of FRBs across the sky. For many tens of FRB fields, they will obtain imaging and multi-object spectroscopy to identify intervening galactic halos and map the foreground large-scale structure. These data and derived quantities (e.g. redshifts (z) and stellar masses), together with measurements of the FRBs (e.g. dispersion measure (DM) and rotation measure (RM)) will enable three major scientific thrusts: (1) cosmology: the first statistically robust determination of the Macquart relation (DM vs. z), leading to a new and complementary estimate of the Hubble parameter; (2) galaxy formation: inferring the radial distribution of baryons in galactic halos and constraining the magnetic fields and gas density of the circumgalactic medium; and (3) FRB progenitors: testing the many models invoked to produce FRBs and using rapid follow-up imaging at radio, optical and X-ray wavelengths to resolve FRB emission mechanisms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

快速射电暴（Fast Radio Burst，FRB）是一种短暂的无线电脉冲，持续时间只有几毫秒。 它们被认为来自我们星系之外的星系，现在是天体物理学追求的一个高度密集的区域，迄今为止已经探测到超过一千个FRB。 加州大学圣克鲁斯分校、西北大学和玛丽亚·米切尔天文台（MMO）之间的一个研究小组组成了FRB后续快速和快速观测（F4）团队的核心，该团队自2019年以来一直由NSF资助，以观测FRB并将其与宿主星系联系起来。这使得该团队能够开始使用FRB信号来探测宇宙，并对整个宇宙中星系外高度扩散状态的重子（亚原子粒子，主要是质子和中子）进行新的普查。 目前的NSF奖项扩展了这项工作，使F4能够通过对精确定位的FRB的两次新调查的后续观测，将其观测影响提高一个数量级，使他们能够研究宇宙学，重子分布和识别FRB祖先。 该奖项还将支持学生参加在MMO举办的学士后“桥梁”计划，以吸引和留住有才华和传统上代表性不足的学生，其长期目标是提高他们在STEM领域的参与和领导力。 所有的研究人员都将参与MMO的许多推广活动。在此期间，F4团队将获得，分析和传播天空中数百个FRB的宿主星系的深层多波段成像和光谱。对于数十个FRB场，他们将获得成像和多目标光谱学，以识别干预星系晕并绘制前景大尺度结构。这些数据和导出的量（例如红移（z）和恒星质量），以及FRB的测量结果（例如色散测度（DM）和旋转测度（RM））将使三个主要的科学推力：（1）宇宙学：第一个统计上可靠的确定麦夸特关系（DM vs. z），得到了哈勃参数的一个新的和补充的估计：（2）星系形成：推断星系晕中重子的径向分布，约束环星系介质的磁场和气体密度;和（3）FRB祖先：测试用于产生FRB的许多模型，并使用无线电、光学和X射线波长的快速跟踪成像来解决FRB发射机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。