arXiv subjects

Yong-Kun Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Yong-Kun Zhang.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

The Host Galaxy of the Hyperactive Repeating FRB 20240114A: Behind a Galaxy Cluster

We report on the optical spectroscopic observations of the host galaxy of the hyperactive repeating fast radio burst, FRB 20240114A. The host galaxy is a dwarf galaxy at a redshift of $z=0.1306\pm0.0002$. With a rest-frame coverage of 4300-7900 Å, we have detected H$\rmα$, H$\rmβ$, [O III]$λλ$4959,5007, [N II]$λλ$6548,6583, and [S II]$λ$6716 emission lines. The emission line ratios suggest that the ionization in the host galaxy is dominated by star formation. The star formation rate (SFR) derived from the H$\rmα$ emission line is $(0.06 \pm 0.01) \ \rm{M_{\odot} \ yr^{-1}}$, and the SED fitting suggests the lower limit of the SFR(UV) is $0.09 \ \rm{M_{\odot} \ yr^{-1}}$. The stellar mass is $(\rm 4.0 \pm 1.8) \times 10^8 \ M_{\odot}$, making the specific star formation rate $\rm log \ sSFR(H\rm α) = -9.8 \pm 0.2 \ yr^{-1}$. The line ratios indicate an upper limit of a metallicity of $\rm 12+log_{10} ([O/H]) \sim 8.5$. As the nearest dwarf host galaxy with a repeating FRB, the activity of FRB 20240114A and the properties of this host galaxy closely resemble those of FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B. The H$\rmα$-traced dispersion measure (DM) provided by the ionized gas of the host galaxy has a moderate contribution of $\sim 200 \rm \ pc \ cm^{-3}$, assuming a warm ionized gas. We found that the distributions of the stellar mass versus SFR are significantly different between repeating and one-off FRBs, as determined by the MANOVA test with $p=0.0116$.

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arXiv2024

DRAFTS: A Deep Learning-Based Radio Fast Transient Search Pipeline

The detection of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in radio astronomy is a complex task due to the challenges posed by radio frequency interference (RFI) and signal dispersion in the interstellar medium. Traditional search algorithms are often inefficient, time-consuming, and generate a high number of false positives. In this paper, we present DRAFTS, a deep learning-based radio fast transient search pipeline. DRAFTS integrates object detection and binary classification techniques to accurately identify FRBs in radio data. We developed a large, real-world dataset of FRBs for training deep learning models. The search test on FAST real observation data demonstrates that DRAFTS performs exceptionally in terms of accuracy, completeness, and search speed. In the re-search of FRB 20190520B observation data, DRAFTS detected more than three times the number of bursts compared to Heimdall, highlighting the potential for future FRB detection and analysis.

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arXiv2024

The Variability of Persistent Radio Sources of Fast Radio Bursts

Over 700 bright millisecond-duration radio transients, known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), have been identified to date. Nevertheless, the origin of FRBs remains unknown. The two repeating FRBs (FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B) have been verified to be associated with persistent radio sources (PRSs), making them the best candidates to study the nature of FRBs. Monitoring the variability in PRSs is essential for understanding their physical nature. We conducted 22 observations of the PRSs linked to FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), to study their variability. We have observed significant flux variability for the PRSs of FRB 20121102A and FRB 20190520B, with a confidence level exceeding 99.99%, based on the observations covering the longest timescale recorded to date. The observed variability of the two PRSs exhibits no significant difference in amplitude across both short and long timescales. We found that the radio-derived star formation rates of the two FRB hosts are significantly higher than those measured by the optical $H_α$ emissions, indicating that their host galaxies are highly obscured or most radio emissions are not from star formation processes. The observed timescale of PRS flux evolution constrained the magnetic field of FRB 20121102A with $B_\parallel\gtrsim1~{\rm mG}$ and FRB 20190520B with $B_\parallel\gtrsim0.1~{\rm mG}$.

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arXiv2024

An extremely active repeating fast radio burst source in a likely non-magneto-ionic environment

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright radio bursts originating at cosmological distances. Only three repeating FRBs FRB 20121102A, FRB 20190520B and FRB 20201124A among $\sim$ 60 known repeating FRBs have circular polarization. We observed the FRB 20220912A with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at L-band on 24 October 2022 and detected 128 bursts in 1.4 hours, corresponding to a burst rate of about 90 hr$^{-1}$, which is the highest yet for FRBs observed by the GBT. The average rotation measure (RM) was $-$0.4$\pm$0.3$\,$rad$\,$m$^{-2}$ with negligible intraday RM change, indicating a likely non-magneto-ionic environment. 61% bursts have linear polarization fraction greater than 90%. Approximately 56% of the bright bursts have circular polarization. A downward drift in frequency and polarization angle swings were found in our sample. The characterization of FRB 20220912A indicates that the circular polarization is unlikely to be caused by the magneto-ionic environment for at least some of the repeating FRB population.

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arXiv2024

The arrival time and energy of FRBs traverse the time-energy bivariate space like a Brownian motion

The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs), the brightest cosmic explosion in radio bands, remains unknown. We introduce here a novel method for a comprehensive analysis of active FRBs' behaviors in the time-energy domain. Using ``Pincus Index'' and ``Maximum Lyapunov Exponent'', we were able to quantify the randomness and chaoticity, respectively, of the bursting events and put FRBs in the context of common transient physical phenomena, such as pulsar, earthquakes, and solar flares. In the bivariate time-energy domain, repeated FRB bursts' behaviors deviate significantly (more random, less chaotic) from pulsars, earthquakes, and solar flares. The waiting times between FRB bursts and the corresponding energy changes exhibit no correlation and remain unpredictable, suggesting that the emission of FRBs does not exhibit the time and energy clustering observed in seismic events. The pronounced stochasticity may arise from a singular source with high entropy or the combination of diverse emission mechanisms/sites. Consequently, our methodology serves as a pragmatic tool for illustrating the congruities and distinctions among diverse physical processes.

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arXiv2023

Scintillation Arc from FRB 20220912A

We present the interstellar scintillation analysis of fast radio burst (FRB) 20220912A during its extremely active episode in 2022 using data from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). We detect a scintillation arc in the FRB's secondary spectrum, which describes the power in terms of the scattered FRB signals' time delay and Doppler shift. The arc indicates that the scintillation is caused by a highly localized region of the ionized interstellar medium (IISM). Our analysis favors a Milky Way origin for the localized scattering medium but cannot rule out a host galaxy origin. We present our method for detecting the scintillation arc, which can be applied generally to sources with irregularly spaced bursts or pulses. These methods could help shed light on the complex interstellar environment surrounding the FRBs and in our Galaxy.

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arXiv2023

FAST Observations of FRB 20220912A: Burst Properties and Polarization Characteristics

We report the observations of FRB 20220912A using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). We conducted 17 observations totaling 8.67 hours and detected a total of 1076 bursts with an event rate up to 390 hr$^{-1}$. The cumulative energy distribution can be well described using a broken power-law function with the lower and higher-energy slopes of $-0.38\pm0.02$ and $-2.07\pm0.07$, respectively. We also report the L band ($1-1.5$ GHz) spectral index of the synthetic spectrum of FRB~20220912A bursts, which is $-2.6\pm0.21$. The average rotation measure (RM) value of the bursts from FRB~20220912A is $-0.08\pm5.39\ \rm rad\,m^{-2}$, close to 0 $\rm rad\,m^{-2}$ and maintain relatively stable over two months. Most bursts have nearly 100\% linear polarization. About 45\% of the bursts have circular polarization with SNR $>$ 3, and the highest circular polarization degree can reach 70\%. Our observations suggest that FRB~20220912A is located in a relatively clean local environment with complex circular polarization characteristics. These various behaviors imply that the mechanism of circular polarization of FRBs likely originates from an intrinsic radiation mechanism, such as coherent curvature radiation or inverse Compton scattering inside the magnetosphere of the FRB engine source (e.g. a magnetar).

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arXiv2023

Atlas of dynamic spectra of fast radio burst FRB 20201124A

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are highly dispersed millisecond-duration radio bursts, of which the physical origin is still not fully understood. FRB 20201124A is one of the most actively repeating FRBs. In this paper, we present the collection of 1863 burst dynamic spectra of FRB 20201124A measured with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The current collection, taken from the observation during the FRB active phase from April to June 2021, is the largest burst sample detected in any FRB so far. The standard PSRFITs format is adopted, including dynamic spectra of the burst, and the time information of the dynamic spectra, in addition, mask files help readers to identify the pulse positions are also provided.

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arXiv2022

Circular Polarization in two Active Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright millisecond radio bursts at cosmological distances. Only a small fraction of FRBs apparently repeat. Polarization, a fundamental property of electromagnetic signals, often carries critical information about the radiation processes, the environment, and the intervening medium of FRBs. Here we report circular polarization detections of two active repeating FRBs, namely FRBs 20121102A and 20190520B, with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. We detect circular polarization in both active repeating FRBs, which increases the number of repeating FRBs with circular polarization to three. In one of the bursts of FRB 20121102A, we detect 64% degree of circular polarization. The observed circular polarization is unlikely induced by multipath propagation. Our observations favor circular polarization induced by Faraday conversion or radiation mechanism intrinsic to the FRB source. The conditions to generate circular polarization have to be rare in either case.

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arXiv2022

FAST observations of an extremely active episode of FRB 20201124A: III. Polarimetry

As the third paper in the multiple-part series, we report the statistical properties of radio bursts detected from the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source FRB 20201124A with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope (FAST) during an extremely active episode between the 25th and the 28th of September 2021 (UT). We focus on the polarisation properties of 536 bright bursts with $\mathrm{S/N}>50$. We found that the Faraday rotation measures (RMs) monotonically dropped from $-579 \ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}}$ to $-605 \ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}}$ in the 4-day window. The RM values were compatible with the values ($-300$ to $-900\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}}$ ) reported 4 month ago (Xu et al. 2022). However, the RM evolution rate in the current observation window was at least an order of magnitude smaller than the one ($\sim 500\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2}\, day^{-1}}$) previously reported during the rapid RM-variation phase, but is still higher than the one ($\le 1\ {\rm rad \ m^{-2} day^{-1}}$ ) during the later RM no-evolution phase. The bursts of FRB 20201124A were highly polarised with the total degree of polarisation (circular plus linear) greater than 90% for more than 90\% of all bursts. The distribution of linear polarisation position angles (PAs), degree of linear polarisation ($L/I$), and degree of circular polarisation ($V/I$) can be characterised with unimodal distribution functions. During the observation window, the distributions became wider with time, i.e. with larger scatter, but the centroids of the distribution functions remained nearly constant. For individual bursts, significant PA variations (confidence level 5-$σ$) were observed in 33% of all bursts. The polarisation of single pulses seems to follow certain complex trajectories on the Poincaré sphere, which may shed light on the radiation mechanism at the source or the plasma properties along the path of FRB propagation.

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arXiv2022

FAST observations of an extremely active episode of FRB 20201124A: II. Energy Distribution

We report the properties of more than 800 bursts detected from the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source FRB 20201124A with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) during an extremely active episode on UTC September 25-28, 2021 in a series of four papers. In this second paper of the series, we mainly focus on the energy distribution of the detected bursts. The event rate initially increased exponentially but the source activity stopped within 24 hours after the 4th day. The detection of 542 bursts in one hour during the fourth day marked the highest event rate detected from one single FRB source so far. The bursts have complex structures in the time-frequency space. We find a double-peak distribution of the waiting time, which can be modeled with two log-normal functions peaking at 51.22 ms and 10.05 s, respectively. Compared with the emission from a previous active episode of the source detected with FAST, the second distribution peak time is smaller, suggesting that this peak is defined by the activity level of the source. We calculate the isotropic energy of the bursts using both a partial bandwidth and a full bandwidth and find that the energy distribution is not significantly changed. We find that an exponentially connected broken-power-law function can fit the cumulative burst energy distribution well, with the lower and higher-energy indices being $-1.22\pm0.01$ and $-4.27\pm0.23$, respectively. Assuming a radio radiative efficiency of $η_r = 10^{-4}$, the total isotropic energy of the bursts released during the four days when the source was active is already $3.9\times10^{46}$ erg, exceeding $\sim 23\%$ of the available magnetar dipolar magnetic energy. This challenges the magnetar models invoking an inefficient radio emission (e.g. synchrotron maser models).

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arXiv2022

FAST observations of an extremely active episode of FRB 20201124A: IV. Spin Period Search

We report the properties of more than 800 bursts detected from the repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source FRB 20201124A with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope (FAST) during an extremely active episode on UTC September 25th-28th, 2021 in a series of four papers. In this fourth paper of the series, we present a systematic search of the spin period and linear acceleration of the source object from both 996 individual pulse peaks and the dedispersed time series. No credible spin period was found from this data set. We rule out the presence of significant periodicity in the range between 1 ms to 100 s with a pulse duty cycle $< 0.49\pm0.08$ (when the profile is defined by a von-Mises function, not a boxcar function) and linear acceleration up to $300$ m s$^{-2}$ in each of the four one-hour observing sessions, and up to $0.6$ m s$^{-2}$ in all 4 days. These searches contest theoretical scenarios involving a 1 ms to 100 s isolated magnetar/pulsar with surface magnetic field $<10^{15}$ G and a small duty cycle (such as in a polar-cap emission mode) or a pulsar with a companion star or black hole up to 100 M$_{\rm \odot}$ and $P_b>10$ hours. We also perform a periodicity search of the fine structures and identify 53 unrelated millisecond-timescale "periods" in multi-components with the highest significance of 3.9 $σ$. The "periods" recovered from the fine structures are neither consistent nor harmonically related. Thus they are not likely to come from a spin period. We caution against claiming spin periodicity with significance below $\sim$ 4 $σ$ with multi-components from one-off FRBs. We discuss the implications of our results and the possible connections between FRB multi-components and pulsar micro-structures.

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arXiv2021

CRAFTS for Fast Radio Bursts Extending the dispersion-fluence relation with new FRBs detected by FAST

We report three new FRBs discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), namely FRB 181017.J0036+11, FRB 181118 and FRB 181130, through the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS). Together with FRB 181123 that was reported earlier, all four FAST-discovered FRBs share the same characteristics of low fluence ($\leq$0.2 Jy ms) and high dispersion measure (DM, $>1000$ \dmu), consistent with the anti-correlation between DM and fluence of the entire FRB population. FRB 181118 and FRB 181130 exhibit band-limited features. FRB 181130 is prominently scattered ($τ_s\simeq8$ ms) at 1.25 GHz. FRB 181017.J0036+11 has full-bandwidth emission with a fluence of 0.042 Jy ms, which is one of the faintest FRB sources detected so far. CRAFTS starts to built a new sample of FRBs that fills the region for more distant and fainter FRBs in the fluence-$\rm DM_E$ diagram, previously out of reach of other surveys. The implied all sky event rate of FRBs is $1.24^{+1.94}_{-0.90} \times 10^5$ sky$^{-1}$ day$^{-1}$ at the $95\%$ confidence interval above 0.0146 Jy ms. We also demonstrate here that the probability density function of CRAFTS FRB detections is sensitive to the assumed intrinsic FRB luminosity function and cosmological evolution, which may be further constrained with more discoveries.

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