arXiv subjects

F. Y. Wang

Publications and source records attributed to F. Y. Wang.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

A New Method to Measure Hubble Parameter $H(z)$ using Fast Radio Bursts

The Hubble parameter $H(z)$ is directly related to the expansion of our Universe. It can be used to study dark energy and constrain cosmology models. In this paper, we propose that $H(z)$ can be measured using fast radio bursts (FRBs) with redshift measurements. We use dispersion measures contributed by the intergalactic medium, which is related to $H(z)$, to measure Hubble parameter. We find that 500 mocked FRBs with dispersion measures and redshift information can accurately measure Hubble parameters using Monte Carlo simulation. The maximum deviation of $H(z)$ from standard $Λ$CDM model is about 6\% at redshift $z= 2.4$. We also test our method using Monte Carlo simulation. Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test is used to check the simulation. The $p$-value of K-S test is 0.23, which confirms internal consistency of the simulation. In future, more localizations of FRBs make it as an attractive cosmological probe.

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arXiv2020

Reply to "Rapid $^{14}$C excursion at 3372-3371 BCE not observed at two different locations"

The nuclide $^{14}$C can be produced in the atmosphere by high energy particles and $γ$-rays from high-energy phenomena. Through the carbon cycle, some of $^{14}$CO$_2$ produced in the atmosphere can be retained in annual tree rings. Four events of rapid increase of the $^{14}$C content occurred in AD 775, AD 994, BC 660 and BC 3371 were found. Recently, the data of Jull et al. (2020) was inconsistent with our records around BC 3371. We measured our sample again and found the $^{14}$C records are consistent with the value in Wang et al. (2017). Therefore, our $^{14}$C records are robust. The inconsistency may be caused by the difference of calendar ages for the wood samples, or the physical origin of the event. First, crossdating on ring width can be performed only between trees whose growth has the same environmental conditions. Because the master tree-ring for dendrochronology is lack for Chinese trees. The master tree-ring from California has to be used. Therefore, the calendar ages derived from dendrochronology may be not precise. Second, the $^{14}$C even may be not global. One evidence is the variation of $^{14}$C content around AD 1006. The $^{14}$C contents of Californian trees increase 12\textperthousand~ in two years, while Japanese trees show no $^{14}$C increase.

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arXiv2020

The rarity of repeating fast radio bursts from binary neutron star mergers

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic, bright pulses of emission at radio frequency with milliseconds duration. Observationally, FRBs can be divided into two classes, repeating FRBs and non-repeating FRBs. At present, twenty repeating FRBs have been discovered with unknown physical origins. Localization of the first repeating FRB 121102 and discovery of an associated persistent radio source support that FRBs are powered by young millisecond magnetars, which could be formed by core-collapses of massive stars or binary neutron stars mergers. These two formation channels can be distinguished by gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars mergers. We first calculate the lower limit of the local formation rate of repeating FRBs observed by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) . Then we show that only a small fraction ($6\%$) of repeating FRBs is produced by young magnetars from binary neutron star mergers, basing on the gravitational wave detections by the third observing run (O3) of Advanced LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Therefore, we believe that repeating FRBs are more likely produced by the magnetars newborn from the core-collapses of massive stars rather than the magnetars from the binary neutron stars mergers.

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arXiv2020

Fast radio bursts from activities of neutron stars newborn in BNS mergers: offset, birth rate and observational properties

Young neutron stars (NSs) born in core-collapse explosions are promising candidates for the central engines of fast radio bursts (FRBs), since the first localized repeating burst FRB 121102 happens in a star forming dwarf galaxy, which is similar to the host galaxies of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) and long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs). However, FRB 180924 and FRB 190523 are localized to massive galaxies with low rates of star formation, compared with the host of FRB 121102. Meanwhile, the offsets between the bursts and host centers are about 4 kpc and 29 kpc for FRB 180924 and FRB 190523, respectively. These properties of hosts are similar to short gamma-ray bursts \textbf{(SGRBs)}, which are produced by mergers of binary neutron star (BNS) or neutron star-black hole (NS-BH). Therefore, the NSs powering FRBs may be formed in BNS mergers. In this paper, we study the BNS merger rates, merger times, and predict their most likely merger locations for different types of host galaxies using population synthesis method. We find that the BNS merger channel is consistent with the recently reported offsets of FRB 180924 and FRB 190523. The offset distribution of short GRBs is well reproduced by population synthesis using galaxy model which is similar to GRB hosts. The event rate of FRBs (including non-repeating and repeating), is larger than those of BNS merger and short GRBs, which requires a large fraction of observed FRBs emitting several bursts. Using curvature radiation by bunches in NS magnetospheres, we also predict the observational properties of FRBs from BNS mergers, including the dispersion measure, and rotation measure. At late times ($t\geq1$yr), the contribution to dispersion measure and rotation measure from BNS merger ejecta could be neglected.

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arXiv2020

Superflares on solar-type stars from the first year observation of TESS

Superflares, as strong explosions on stars, have been well studied with the progress of space time-domain astronomy. In this work, we present the study of superflares on solar-type stars using Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite ({\em{TESS}}) data. 13 sectors of observations during the first year of the {\em TESS} mission have covered the southern hemisphere of the sky, containing 25,734 solar-type stars. We verified 1,216 superflares on 400 solar-type stars through automatic search and visual inspection with 2-minute cadence data. Our result suggests a higher superflare frequency distribution than the result from {\em Kepler}. The reason may be that the majority of {\em TESS} solar-type stars in our dataset are rapidly rotating stars. The power-law index $γ$ of the superflare frequency distribution ($dN/dE\propto E^{-γ}$) is constrained to be $γ= 2.16\pm 0.10$, which is a little larger than that of solar flares but consistent with the results from {\em Kepler}. Because only 7 superflares of Sun-like stars are detected, we may not give a robust superflare occurrence frequency. And four stars are accompanied by unconfirmed hot planet candidates. Therefore, superflares are possibly caused by stellar magnetic activities instead of planet-star interactions. We also find an extraordinary star TIC43472154, which exhibits about 200 superflares per year. In addition, the correlation between energy and duration of superflares ($T_{\text {duration }} \propto E^β$) is analyzed. We derive the power-law index to be $β=0.42\pm0.01$, which is a little larger than $β=1/3$ from the prediction according to magnetic reconnection theory.

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arXiv2019

A bright electromagnetic counterpart to extreme mass ratio inspirals

The extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI), defined as a stellar-mass compact object inspiraling into a supermassive black hole (SMBH), has been widely argued to be a low-frequency gravitational wave (GW) source. EMRIs providing accurate measurements of black hole mass and spin, are one of the primary interests for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). However, it is usually believed that there are no electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to EMRIs. Here we show a new formation channel of EMRIs with tidal disruption flares as EM counterparts. In this scenario, flares can be produced from the tidal stripping of the helium (He) envelope of a massive star by an SMBH. The left compact core of the massive star will evolve into an EMRI. We find that, under certain initial eccentricity and semimajor axis, the GW frequency of the inspiral can enter LISA band within 10 $\sim$ 20 years, which makes the tidal disruption flare an EM precursor to EMRI. Although the event rate is just $2\times 10^{-4}~\rm Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}$, this association can not only improve the localization accuracy of LISA and help to find the host galaxy of EMRI, but also serve as a new GW standard siren for cosmology.

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arXiv2019

Consequences of Energetic Magnetar-Like Outbursts of Nearby Neutron Stars: $^{14}$C Events and the Cosmic Electron Spectrum

Four significant events of rapid $^{14}$C increase have taken place within the past several thousand years. The physical origin of these rapid increases is still a mystery but must be associated with extremely energetic cosmic processes. Pulsars are highly magnetized neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiations. Any sudden release of the energy stored in the magnetic multipole field will trigger outbursts similar to the giant flares of magnetars. Here we show that the relativistic outflow from the outbursts of a nearby pulsar interacting with the interstellar medium generates a shock, which accelerates electrons to trillions of electron volts. The high-energy photons from synchrotron emission of the shock interact with Earth's atmosphere, producing the cosmogenic nuclide $^{14}$C, which can cause the rapid $^{14}$C increases discovered in tree rings. These same relativistic electrons can account for a significant fraction of the cosmic electron spectrum in the trillion electron volts energy range, as observed by space-borne satellites. Since these outburst events can significantly affect our environment, monitoring nearby pulsars for such outbursts may be important in the future.

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arXiv2019

Statistical properties magnetar bursts and FRB 121102

In this paper, we present statistics of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts from SGR J1550-5418, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 by adding new bursts from Kırmızıbayrak et al. (2017) detected with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We find that the fluence distributions of magnetar bursts are well described by power-law functions with indices 1.84, 1.68, and 1.65 for SGR J1550-5418, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, respectively. The duration distributions of magnetar bursts also show power-law forms. Meanwhile, the waiting time distribution can be described by a non-stationary Poisson process with an exponentially growing occurrence rate. These distributive features indicate that magnetar bursts can be regarded as a self-organizing critical process. We also compare these distributions with the repeating FRB 121102. The statistical properties of repeating FRB 121102 are similar with magentar bursts, combing with the large required magnetic filed ($B\geq 10^{14}$G) of neutron star for FRB 121102, which indicates that the central engine of FRB 121102 may be a magnetar.

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arXiv2019

Probing the isotropy of cosmic acceleration using different supernova samples

Recent studies have indicated that an anisotropic cosmic expansion may exist. In this paper, we use three datasets of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to probe the isotropy of cosmic acceleration. For the Union2.1 dataset, the direction and magnitude of the dipole are $(l=309.3^{\circ} {}^{+ 15.5^{\circ}}_{-15.7^{\circ}} ,\ b = -8.9^{\circ} {}^{ + 11.2^{\circ}}_{-9.8^{\circ}} ),\ A=(1.46 \pm 0.56) \times 10^{-3}$. For the Constitution dataset, the results are $(l=67.0^{\circ}{}^{+ 66.5^{\circ}}_{-66.2^{\circ}},\ b=-0.6^{\circ}{}^{+ 25.2^{\circ}}_{-26.3^{\circ}}),\ A=(4.4 \pm 5.0) \times 10^{-4}$. For the JLA dataset, no significant dipolar deviation is found. We also explore the effects of anisotropic distributions of coordinates and redshifts on the results using Monte-Carlo simulations. We find that the anisotropic distribution of coordinates can cause dipole directions and make dipole magnitude larger. Anisotropic distribution of redshifts is found to have no significant effect on dipole fitting results.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

A universal energy distribution for FRB 121102

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are milliseconds radio transients with large dispersion measures (DMs). An outstanding question is the relation between repeating FRBs and those with a single burst. In this paper, we study the energy distribution of the repeating FRB 121102. For a power-law distribution of energy $dN/dE\propto E^{-α_E}$, we show that the value of $α_E$ is in a narrow range $1.6-1.8$ for bursts observed by different telescopes at different frequencies, which indicates a universal energy distribution for FRB 121102. Interestingly, similar power-law index of energy distribution for non-repeating FRBs observed by Parkes and ASKAP is also found. However, if low-energy bursts below completeness threshold of Arecibo are discarded for FRB 121102, the slope could be up to 2.2. Implications of such a universal energy distribution are discussed.

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arXiv2019

Energy function, formation rate and low-metallicity environment of fast radio bursts

In this paper, we investigate the energy function, formation rate and environment of fast radio bursts (FRBs) using Parkes sample and Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) sample. For the first time, the metallicity effect on the formation rate is considered. If FRBs are produced by the mergers of compact binaries, the formation rate of FRBs should have a time delay relative to cosmic star formation rate (CSFR). We get the time delay is about 3-5 Gyr and the index of differential energy function $γ$ ($dN/dE\propto E^{-γ}$) is between 1.6 and 2.0 from redshift cumulative distribution. The value of $γ$ is similar to that of FRB 121102, which indicates single bursts may share the same physical mechanism with the repeaters. In another case, if the formation rate of FRB is proportional to the SFR without time delay, the index $γ$ is about 2.3. In both cases, we find that FRBs may prefer to occur in low-metallicity environment with $ 12 +\log(\rm{O/H}) \simeq 8.40$, which is similar to those of long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I).

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arXiv2019

Calibration of gamma-ray bursts luminosity correlations using gravitational waves as standard sirens

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are a potential tool to probe high-redshift universe. However, the circularity problem enforces people to find model-independent methods to study the luminosity correlations of GRBs. Here, we present a new method which uses gravitational waves as standard sirens to calibrate GRB luminosity correlations. For the third-generation ground-based GW detectors (i.e., Einstein Telescope), the redshifts of gravitational wave (GW) events accompanied electromagnetic counterparts can reach out to $\sim 4$, which is more distant than type Ia supernovae ($z\lesssim 2$). The Amati relation and Ghirlanda relation are calibrated using mock GW catalogue from Einstein Telescope. We find that the $1σ$ uncertainty of intercepts and slopes of these correlations can be constrained to less than 0.2\% and 8\% respectively. Using calibrated correlations, the evolution of dark energy equation of state can be tightly measured, which is important for discriminating dark energy models.

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arXiv2019

Probing cosmic acceleration by strong gravitational lensing systems

Recently, some divergent conclusions about cosmic acceleration were obtained using type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), with opposite assumptions on the intrinsic luminosity evolution. In this paper, we use strong gravitational lensing systems to probe the cosmic acceleration. Since the theory of strong gravitational lensing is established certainly, and the Einstein radius is determined by stable cosmic geometry. We study two cosmological models, $Λ$CDM and power-law models, through 152 strong gravitational lensing systems, incorporating with 30 Hubble parameters $H(z)$ and 11 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. Bayesian evidence are introduced to make a one-on-one comparison between cosmological models. Basing on Bayes factors $\ln B$ of flat $Λ$CDM versus power-law and $R_{h}=ct$ models are $\ln B>5$, we find that the flat $Λ$CDM is strongly supported by the combination of the datasets. Namely, an accelerating cosmology with non power-law expansion is preferred by our numeration.

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arXiv2018

The correlation between isotropic energy and duration of gamma-ray bursts

In this paper, we study the correlation between isotropic energy and duration of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for the first time. The correlation is found to be $T_d \propto {E_{iso}}^{0.34\pm 0.03}$ from the {\em Swift} GRB sample. After comparing with solar flares from {\em RHESSI} and stellar superflares from {\em Kepler} satellite, we find that the correlation of GRBs shows similar exponent with those of solar flares and stellar superflares. Inspired by the physical mechanism of solar flares and stellar superflares which is magnetic reconnection, we interpret the correlation using magnetic reconnection theory. This similarity hints that magnetic reconnection may dominate energy releasing process of GRBs.

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arXiv2018

Precise peculiar velocities from gravitational waves accompanied by electromagnetic signals and cosmological applications

Peculiar velocities are a precious tool to study the large-scale distribution of matter in the local universe and test cosmological models. However, present measurements of peculiar velocities are based on empirical distance indicators, which introduce large error bars. Here we present a new method to measure the peculiar velocities, by directly estimating luminosity distances through waveform signals from inspiralling compact binaries and measuring redshifts from electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. In the future, with the distance uncertainty of GW events reducing to $0.1$ per cent by future GW detectors, the uncertainty of the peculiar velocity can be reduced to $10$ km/s at 100 mega parsecs. We find that dozens of GW events with EM counterparts can provide a Hubble constant $H_0$ uncertainty of $0.5\%$ and the growth rate of structure with a $0.6\%$ precision in the third-generation ground-base GW detectors, which can reconcile the $H_0$ tension and determine the origins for cosmic accelerated expansion.

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arXiv2018

Testing Weak Equivalence Principle with Strongly Lensed Cosmic Transients

Current constraints on Einstein's weak equivalence principle (WEP) utilize the observed time delay between correlated particles of astronomical sources. However, the intrinsic time delay due to particle emission time is impossible to measure and is simply assumed to be zero in previous studies. Here we propose a robust method to test WEP for relativistic messengers using strongly lensed cosmic transients, which can naturally overcome the intrinsic time delay problem. This can be achieved in two ways: by comparing the time delays between lensed images seen in different energy bands or in gravitational waves (GWs) and their electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. The power of our method mainly depends on the timing accuracy of cosmic transient and the strong lensing time delay. If the time delay of cosmic transient can be measured with accuracy about 0.1 s (e.g. gamma-ray bursts), we show that the upper limit on the differences of the parameterized post-Newtonian parameter $γ$ value is $Δγ<10^{-7}$ with a one-month strong lensing time delay event. This accuracy of WEP can be improved by a factor of $10^{7}$, if the lens is galaxy cluster and the strongly lensed cosmic transients have much shorter duration, such as fast radio bursts.

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arXiv2018

Testing the anisotropy of cosmic acceleration from Pantheon supernovae sample

In this paper, we study the anisotropy of cosmic acceleration the using Pantheon sample, which includes 1048 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) covering the redshift range $0.01 < z < 2.3$. In hemisphere comparison method, we find the dipole direction is $(l = 37 \pm 40^{\circ}, b = 33 \pm 16^{\circ})$ with the maximum anisotropy level of $δ=0.136 {}^{+0.009}_{-0.005}$. From the dipole fitting method, we find that the magnitude of anisotropy is $A = (3.7 {}^{+2.5}_{-3.7}) \times 10^{-4}$, and the direction of the dipole $(l = 329^{\circ}{}^{+ 101^{\circ}}_{-28^{\circ}}, b = 37^{\circ}{}^{+ 52^{\circ}}_{-21^{\circ}})$ in the galactic coordinate system. The result is weakly dependent on redshift from the redshift tomography analysis. The anisotropy is small and the isotropic cosmological model is an excellent approximation.

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arXiv2018

A New Method to Test the Einstein's Weak Equivalence Principle

The Einstein's weak equivalence principle (WEP) is one of the foundational assumptions of general relativity and some other gravity theories. In the theory of parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN), the difference between the PPN parameters $γ$ of different particles or the same type of particle with different energies, $Δγ$, represents the violation of WEP. Current constraints on $Δγ$ are derived from the observed time delay between correlated particles of astronomical sources. However, the observed time delay is contaminated by other effects, such as the time delays due to different particle emission times, the potential Lorentz invariance violation and none-zero photon rest mass. Therefore, current constraints are only upper limits. Here we propose a new method to test WEP based on the fact that the gravitational time delay is direction-dependent while others are not. This is the first method which can naturally correct other time delay effects. Using the time delay measurements of BASTE gamma-ray burst (GRB) sample and the gravitational potential of local super galaxy cluster Laniakea, we find that the constraint on $Δγ$ of different energy photons can be as low as $10^{-14}$. In the future, if more gravitational wave events and fast radio bursts with much more precise time delay measurements are observed, this method can give a reliable and tight constraint on WEP.

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