arXiv subjects

O. S. Ould-Boukattine

Publications and source records attributed to O. S. Ould-Boukattine.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A 4200-hour HyperFlash and ÉCLAT campaign on the hyperactive FRB 20240114A: constraining energetics with the most brilliant bursts

Hyperactive repeaters provide a unique window into the evolving environments and energy budgets of fast radio burst (FRB) sources, though they may not be representative of the FRB population in general. High-cadence observations are key to capturing the rarest and most energetic bursts, which occur only once per hundreds to thousands of hours. Here we present an unprecedented $4{,}200$-hour observing campaign targeting FRB 20240114A as part of the HyperFlash and ÉCLAT FRB monitoring programs. Over $806$ days, we detected $178$ high-energy ($\sim$$10^{40-42}$ erg) bursts with HyperFlash, which together amount to $4.4 \times 10^{42}$ erg of released radio energy (assuming isotropic emission and 1-GHz emission bandwidth). The cumulative energy of the HyperFlash bursts is about twice that of $\sim$$11{,}000$ lower-energy bursts detected with FAST, emphasising the significant role that the highest-energy bursts play in depleting the central engine's stored energy. In fact, the single most brilliant burst from our sample, which we term the STROOP, contributes roughly $1/3$ of all the energy we measure, and is at the maximum energy seen in studies of both repeating and apparently one-off FRBs alike. We also find a break in the burst energy distribution at $\sim$$2\times10^{40}$ erg and a linear dispersion measure (DM) increase of $+0.96 \pm 0.06$ pc cm$^{-3}$ over a period of $318$ days. We discuss these findings in the context of a magnetar source model and highlight comparisons with the energetics of intermediate and giant X-ray/$γ$-ray flares from Galactic sources.

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arXiv2026

A HyperFlash and ÉCLAT view of the local environment and energetics of the repeating FRB 20240619D

Time-variable propagation effects provide a window into the local plasma environments of repeating fast radio burst (FRB) sources. Here we report high-cadence observations of FRB 20240619D, as part of the HyperFlash and ÉCLAT programs. We observed for $500$h and detected $217$ bursts, including $10$ bursts with high fluence ($>25$ Jy ms) and implied energy. We track burst-to-burst variations in dispersion measure (DM) and rotation measure (RM), from which we constrain the parallel magnetic field strength in the source's local environment: $0.27\pm0.13$ mG. Apparent DM variations between sub-bursts in a single bright event are interpreted as coming from plasma lensing or variable emission height. We also identify two distinct scintillation screens along the line of sight, one associated with the Milky Way and the other likely located in the FRB's host galaxy or local environment. Together, these (time-variable) propagation effects reveal that FRB 20240619D is embedded in a dense, turbulent and highly magnetised plasma. The source's environment is more dynamic than that measured for many other (repeating) FRB sources, but less extreme compared to several repeaters that are associated with a compact, persistent radio source. FRB 20240619D's cumulative burst fluence distribution shows a power-law break, with a flat tail at high energies. Along with previous studies, this emphasises a common feature in the burst energy distribution of hyperactive repeaters. Using the break in the burst fluence distribution, we estimate a source redshift of $z=0.042$-$0.240$. We discuss FRB 20240619D's nature in the context of similar studies of other repeating FRBs.

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arXiv2025

A probe of the maximum energetics of fast radio bursts through a prolific repeating source

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are sufficiently energetic to be detectable from luminosity distances up to at least seven billion parsecs (redshift $z > 1$). Probing the maximum energies and luminosities of FRBs constrains their emission mechanism and cosmological population. Here we investigate the maximum energetics of a highly active repeater, FRB 20220912A, using 1,500 h of observations. We detect $130$ high-energy bursts and find a break in the burst energy distribution, with a flattening of the power-law slope at higher energy -- consistent with the behaviour of another highly active repeater, FRB 20201124A. There is a roughly equal split of integrated burst energy between the low- and high-energy regimes. Furthermore, we model the rate of the highest-energy bursts and find a turnover at a characteristic spectral energy density of $E^{\textrm{char}}_ν = 2.09^{+3.78}_{-1.04}\times10^{32}$ erg/Hz. This characteristic maximum energy agrees well with observations of apparently one-off FRBs, suggesting a common physical mechanism for their emission. The extreme burst energies push radiation and source models to their limit: at this burst rate a typical magnetar ($B = 10^{15}$ G) would deplete the energy stored in its magnetosphere in $\sim$ 2150 h, assuming a radio efficiency $ε_\mathrm{radio} = 10^{-5}$. We find that the high-energy bursts ($E_ν> 3 \times 10^{30}$ erg Hz$^{-1}$) play an important role in exhausting the energy budget of the source.

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arXiv2025

A Hyperactive FRB Pinpointed in an SMC-Like Satellite Host Galaxy

Precise localizations of fast radio bursts (FRBs) are essential for uncovering their host galaxies and immediate environments. We present the milliarcsecond-precision European VLBI Network localization of FRB 20240114A, a hyperactive repeating FRB, achieving <90x30 mas (1-sigma) accuracy. This precision places the burst 0.5 kpc from the nucleus of its low-metallicity star-forming dwarf host at a spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.130287. Our Gran Telescopio CANARIAS spectroscopic follow-up reveals that the dwarf FRB host is gravitationally bound to a more massive, star-forming spiral galaxy. This establishes the first known instance of an FRB residing in a satellite galaxy within a larger galactic system. This configuration, analogous to the Small Magellanic Cloud orbiting the Milky Way (but at a lower overall mass scale), expands the known diversity of FRB host environments and offers important insights for interpreting seemingly "hostless" or highly offset FRBs. Furthermore, our detailed dispersion measure (DM) budget analysis indicates that the dominant contribution to FRB 20240114A's DM likely originates from the foreground galaxy halos. This finding addresses the anomalously high DM observed for this FRB and underscores the significant role of intervening foreground structures in shaping observed FRB DMs, which is important for accurate FRB-based cosmological measurements. Our results highlight the importance of deep, high-resolution optical/infrared observations (e.g., with the Hubble or James Webb Space Telescopes) to fully leverage our precise radio localization and probe the immediate astrophysical birthplaces of FRB progenitors within these complex galactic systems.

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arXiv2025

Revisiting FRB 20121102A: milliarcsecond localisation and a decreasing dispersion measure

FRB 20121102A is the original repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source and also the first to be localised to milliarcsecond precision using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). It has been active for over 13 years and resides in an extreme magneto-ionic environment in a dwarf host galaxy at a distance of ~1 Gpc. In this work, we use the European VLBI Network (EVN) to (re-)localise FRB 20121102A and its associated persistent radio source (PRS). We confirm that the two are co-located -- improving on previous results by a factor of ~4 and constraining the FRB and PRS co-location to ~12 pc transverse offset. Over a decade, the PRS luminosity on milliarcsecond scales remains consistent with measurements on larger angular scales, showing that the PRS is still compact. We also present the detection of 18 bursts with the Nancay Radio Telescope (NRT) as part of our ÉCLAT monitoring program. These bursts, together with previously published results, show that the observed dispersion measure (DM) of FRB 20121102A has dropped by ~25 pc/cc in the past five years, highlighting a fractional decrease in the local DM contribution of >15%. We discuss potential physical scenarios and highlight possible future observations that will help reveal the nature of FRB 20121102A, which is one of only a few known FRBs with a luminous PRS.

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arXiv2024

A Radio Study of Persistent Radio Sources in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies: Implications for Fast Radio Bursts

We present 1 - 12 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array observations of 9 off-nuclear persistent radio sources (PRSs) in nearby (z < 0.055) dwarf galaxies, along with high-resolution European very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) Network (EVN) observations for one of them at 1.7GHz. We explore the plausibility that these PRSs are associated with fast radio burst (FRB) sources by examining their properties, physical sizes, host-normalized offsets, spectral energy distributions (SEDs), radio luminosities, and light curves, and compare them to those of the PRSs associated with FRBs 20121102A and 20190520B, two known active galactic nuclei (AGN), and one likely AGN in our sample with comparable data, as well as other radio transients exhibiting characteristics analogous to FRB-PRSs. We identify a single source in our sample, J1136+2643, as the most promising FRB- PRS, based on its compact physical size and host-normalized offset. We further identify two sources, J0019+1507 and J0909+5955, with physical sizes comparable to FRB-PRSs, but which exhibit large offsets and flat spectral indices potentially indicative of a background AGN origin. We test the viability of neutron star wind nebulae and hypernebulae models for J1136+2643, and find that the physical size, luminosity, and SED of J1136+2643 are broadly consistent with these models. Finally, we discuss the alternative interpretation that the radio sources are instead powered by accreting massive black holes and outline future prospects and follow-up observations for differentiating between these scenarios.

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arXiv2024

An X-ray and radio view of the 2022 reactivation of the magnetar SGRJ1935+2154

Recently, the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 has garnered attention due to its emission of an extremely luminous radio burst, reminiscent of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). SGR J1935+2154 is one of the most active magnetars, displaying flaring events nearly every year, including outbursts as well as short and intermediate bursts. Here, we present our results on the properties of the persistent and bursting X-ray emission from SGR J1935+2154, during the initial weeks following its outburst on October 10, 2022. The source was observed with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR (quasi-)simultaneously during two epochs, separated by $\sim$5 days. The persistent emission spectrum is well described by an absorbed blackbody plus power-law model up to an energy of $\sim$25 keV. No significant changes were observed in the blackbody temperature ($kT_{\rm BB}\sim$ 0.4 keV) and emitting radius ($R_{\rm BB}\sim$ 1.9 km) between the two epochs. However, we observed a slight variation in the power-law parameters. Moreover, we detected X-ray pulsations in all the datasets and derived a spin period derivative of $\dot{P} = 5.52(5) \times 10^{-11}$ ss. This is 3.8 times larger than the value measured after the first recorded outburst in 2014. Additionally, we performed quasi-simultaneous radio observations using three 25--32-m class radio telescopes for a total of 92.5 hr to search for FRB-like radio bursts and pulsed emission. However, our analysis did not reveal any radio bursts or periodic emission.

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arXiv2023

Detection of ultra-fast radio bursts from FRB 20121102A

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic transients with typical durations of milliseconds. FRBs have been shown, however, to fluctuate on a wide range of timescales: some show sub-microsecond sub-bursts while others last up to a few seconds in total. Probing FRBs on a range of timescales is crucial for understanding their emission physics, how to detect them effectively, and how to maximize their utility as astrophysical probes. FRB 20121102A is the first-known repeating FRB source. Here we show that FRB 20121102A is able to produce isolated microsecond-duration bursts whose total durations are more than ten times shorter than all other known FRBs to date. The polarimetric properties of these micro-bursts resemble those of the longer-lasting bursts, suggesting a common emission mechanism producing FRBs spanning a factor of 1,000 in duration. Furthermore, this work shows that there exists a population of ultra-fast radio bursts that current wide-field FRB searches are missing due to insufficient time-resolution. These results indicate that FRBs occur more frequently and with greater diversity than initially thought. This could also influence our understanding of energy, wait time, and burst rate distributions.

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arXiv2022

Arecibo observations of a burst storm from FRB 20121102A in 2016

FRB 20121102A is the first known fast radio burst (FRB) from which repeat bursts were detected, and one of the best-studied FRB sources in the literature. Here we report on the analysis of 478 bursts (333 previously unreported) from FRB 20121102A using the 305-m Arecibo telescope - detected during approximately 59 hours of observations between December 2015 and October 2016. The majority of bursts are from a burst storm around September 2016. This is the earliest available sample of a large number of FRB 20121102A bursts, and it thus provides an anchor point for long-term studies of the source's evolving properties. We observe that the bursts separate into two groups in the width-bandwidth-energy parameter space, which we refer to as the low-energy bursts (LEBs) and high-energy bursts (HEBs). The LEBs are typically longer duration and narrower bandwidth than the HEBs, reminiscent of the spectro-temporal differences observed between the bursts of repeating and non-repeating FRBs. We fit the cumulative burst rate-energy distribution with a broken power-law and find that it flattens out toward higher energies. The sample shows a diverse zoo of burst morphologies. Notably, burst emission seems to be more common at the top than the bottom of our 1150 - 1730 MHz observing band. We also observe that bursts from the same day appear to be more similar to each other than to those of other days, but this observation requires confirmation. The wait times and burst rates that we measure are consistent with previous studies. We discuss these results, primarily in the context of magnetar models.

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arXiv2021

Milliarcsecond localisation of the repeating FRB 20201124A

Very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) localisations of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) have demonstrated a diversity of local environments: from nearby star-forming regions to globular clusters. Here we report the VLBI localisation of FRB 20201124A using an ad-hoc array of dishes that also participate in the European VLBI Network (EVN). In our campaign, we detected 18 total bursts from FRB 20201124A at two separate epochs. By combining the visibilities from both observing epochs, we were able to localise FRB 20201124A with a 1-$σ$ error of 4.5 milliarcseconds (mas). We use the relatively large burst sample to investigate astrometric accuracy, and find that for $\gtrsim20$ baselines ($\gtrsim7$ dishes) that we can robustly reach milliarcsecond precision even using single-burst data sets. Sub-arcsecond precision is still possible for single bursts, even when only $\sim$ six baselines (four dishes) are available. We explore two methods for determining the individual burst positions: the peaks of the dirty maps and a Gaussian fit to the cross fringe pattern on the dirty maps. We found the latter to be more reliable due to the lower mean and standard deviation in the offsets from the FRB position. Our VLBI work places FRB 20201124A 705$\pm$26 mas (1-$σ$ errors) from the optical centre of the host galaxy, and consistent with originating from within the recently-discovered extended radio structure associated with star-formation in the host galaxy. Future high-resolution optical observations, e.g. with Hubble Space Telescope, can determine the proximity of our FRB 20201124A VLBI position to nearby knots of star formation.

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arXiv2021

Burst timescales and luminosities link young pulsars and fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic radio flashes of unknown physical origin. Their high luminosities and short durations require extreme energy densities, like those found in the vicinity of neutron stars and black holes. Studying the burst intensities and polarimetric properties on a wide range of timescales, from milliseconds down to nanoseconds, is key to understanding the emission mechanism. However, high-time-resolution studies of FRBs are limited by their unpredictable activity levels, available instrumentation and temporal broadening in the intervening ionised medium. Here we show that the repeating FRB 20200120E can produce isolated shots of emission as short as about 60 nanoseconds in duration, with brightness temperatures as high as $3\times 10^{41}$ K (excluding relativistic effects), comparable to `nano-shots' from the Crab pulsar. Comparing both the range of timescales and luminosities, we find that FRB 20200120E observationally bridges the gap between known Galactic young pulsars and magnetars, and the much more distant extragalactic FRBs. This suggests a common magnetically powered emission mechanism spanning many orders of magnitude in timescale and luminosity. In this work, we probe a relatively unexplored region of the short-duration transient phase space; we highlight that there likely exists a population of ultra-fast radio transients at nanosecond to microsecond timescales, which current FRB searches are insensitive to.

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arXiv2021

A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are exceptionally luminous flashes of unknown physical origin, reaching us from other galaxies (Petroff et al. 2019). Most FRBs have only ever been seen once, while others flash repeatedly, though sporadically (Spitler et al. 2016, CHIME/FRB Collaboration et al. 2021). Many models invoke magnetically powered neutron stars (magnetars) as the engines producing FRB emission (Margalit & Metzger 2018, CHIME/FRB Collaboration et al. 2020). Recently, CHIME/FRB announced the discovery (Bhardwaj et al. 2021) of the repeating FRB 20200120E, coming from the direction of the nearby grand design spiral galaxy M81. Four potential counterparts at other observing wavelengths were identified (Bhardwaj et al. 2021) but no definitive association with these sources, or M81, could be made. Here we report an extremely precise localisation of FRB 20200120E, which allows us to associate it with a globular cluster (GC) in the M81 galactic system and to place it ~2pc offset from the optical center of light of the GC. This confirms (Bhardwaj et al. 2021) that FRB 20200120E is 40 times closer than any other known extragalactic FRB. Because such GCs host old stellar populations, this association strongly challenges FRB models that invoke young magnetars formed in a core-collapse supernova as powering FRB emission. We propose, instead, that FRB 20200120E is a highly magnetised neutron star formed via either accretion-induced collapse of a white dwarf or via merger of compact stars in a binary system (Margalit et al. 2019). Alternative scenarios involving compact binary systems, efficiently formed inside globular clusters, could also be responsible for the observed bursts.

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