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arXiv · 2610.07325

A spatially resolved view of Fast Radio Burst host metallicities with Integral-field Spectroscopy

Sunil Simha·Hsiao-Wen Chen·Wen-fai Fong·Sarah Hughes·Yuxin Dong·J. Xavier Prochaska·Nicolas Tejos·Tarraneh Eftekhari·Alexa C. Gordon·Stuart D. Ryder·Mawson W. Sammons·Alice P. Curtin·Victoria M. Kaspi·Adam E. Lanman·Calvin Leung·Kiyoshi W. Masui·Aaron B. Pearlman·Ryan M. Shannon
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Abstract

Magnetar sources are the leading theory for Fast Radio Burst (FRB) progenitors. If magnetars are indeed the dominant sources, we may thus expect any metallicity preference for magnetar formation to be reflected in the FRB site in host galaxies. Here, we leverage Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy to spatially resolve gas-phase metallicity distribution in five FRB host galaxies: FRB 20240210A, FRB 20240312D, FRB 20250227A, FRB 20211127I, and FRB 20250316A, at $z < 0.05$, including the FRB site, with the O3N2 index. We observed the first four sources with the newly commissioned Large Lenslet Array Magellan Spectrograph (LLAMAS) IFU on the Magellan Telescopes and used archival Keck/KCWI data for FRB 20250316A. We find ISM metallicity variations of at least 0.3 dex within individual hosts for the majority of the sample, with median values spanning $12 + log(O/H) \approx$ 8.5--8.7. At the burst sites, four have metallicities of $12 + \log(O/H) \approx 8.5$--8.9, while the fifth has a metallicity below 8.5. These findings reveal substantial metallicity variations both among FRB host galaxies and within the local environments of the bursts. Consequently, our study shows that longslit-based global estimates of host galaxy metallicity do not always represent the true burst-site distributions. We therefore advocate for IFU follow-up of larger host samples to ultimately provide FRB-site-relevant observational constraints on metallicity preferences for FRB occurrence.

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Sunil Simha, Hsiao-Wen Chen, Wen-fai Fong, Sarah Hughes, Yuxin Dong, J. Xavier Prochaska, Nicolas Tejos, Tarraneh Eftekhari, Alexa C. Gordon, Stuart D. Ryder, Mawson W. Sammons, Alice P. Curtin, Victoria M. Kaspi, Adam E. Lanman, Calvin Leung, Kiyoshi W. Masui, Aaron B. Pearlman, Ryan M. Shannon. 2026-10-05. A spatially resolved view of Fast Radio Burst host metallicities with Integral-field Spectroscopy. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.07325

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