Pinpointing the Science of Fast Radio Bursts

2007年，人们首次发现了仅持续千分之几秒的太空射电爆发。这些事件现在被称为“快速射电暴”（frb），在2016年《自然》杂志的一篇特写中被认为是当今天文学中“最令人费解的谜团”。大约有24个快速射电暴被发现，并被证明来自银河系之外。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——美国国家科学基金会的卡尔·g·扬斯基甚大阵列（VLA）的新能力，在三年内探测和研究几十个快速射电暴。这些天文学家将第一次能够准确地绘制出快速射电暴的位置、距离和环境，并确定它们产生的星系。这将使研究人员能够明确地找到关于快速射电暴起源的基本问题的答案，并利用它们更好地了解宇宙。该团队还将通过使其成为西弗吉尼亚大学“脉冲星搜索合作实验室”教育和推广网络的一部分，直接吸引数千名高中生参与实验的兴奋和活力。该项目将为学生提供接触FRB候选人的机会，使他们能够评估和发现新的事件，并直接参与研究和发现过程。wvu的研究团队将使用VLA提供快速射电暴的弧秒定位，这将首次允许对其起源和性质进行详细研究。观测将开始解决该现象是否有多个祖先，以及如何将快速射电暴用作探测星系间介质和其他星系组成的工具。对FRB宿主的多波长研究将为FRB后续科学的未来奠定坚实的统计基础，这将持续数年。该计划的一个关键组成部分将是自动识别和公开发布可靠的瞬变事件，这将为其他科学家和设施立即使用结果提供机会，进一步推进时域科学。

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.