Magnetic field reversal in the turbulent environment around a repeating fast radio burst

R. Anna-Thomas, L. Connor, Shi Dai, Y. Feng, S. Burke-Spolaor, P. Beniamini, Y.-P. Yang, Y.-K. Zhang, K. Aggarwal, C.J. Law, D. Li, C. Niu, S. Chatterjee, M. Cruces, R. Duan, Miroslav D. Filipovic, G. Hobbs, R.S. Lynch, C. Miao, J. NiuS.K. Ocker, C.-W. Tsai, P. Wang, M. Xue, J.-M. Yao, W. Yu, B. Zhang, L. Zhang, S. Zhu, W. Zhu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief, intense flashes of radio waves from unidentified extragalactic sources. Polarized FRBs originate in highly magnetized environments. We report observations of the repeating FRB 20190520B spanning 17 months, which show that the FRB’s Faraday rotation is highly variable and twice changes sign. The FRB also depolarizes below radio frequencies of about 1 to 3 gigahertz. We interpret these properties as being due to changes in the parallel component of the magnetic field integrated along the line of sight, including reversing direction of the field. This could result from propagation through a turbulent magnetized screen of plasma, located 10–5 to 100 parsecs from the FRB source. This is consistent with the bursts passing through the stellar wind of a binary companion of the FRB source.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6645
Pages (from-to)509-604
Number of pages96
JournalScience
Volume380
Issue number6645
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 May 2023

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