A fast radio burst at redshift 2, three billion years after the Big Bang
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio transients from extragalactic sources. Their frequency and polarization properties are affected by plasma and magnetic fields along the line of sight to Earth. We report radio observations of FRB 20240304B and near-infrared follow-up to identify its host galaxy. The host is a low-mass, clumpy, star-forming galaxy at redshift 2.148 ± 0.0013, corresponding to 3 billion years after the Big Bang. This FRB occurred during the peak of cosmic star formation and probes ionized gas over approximately 80% of cosmic history. The highly scattered burst emission implies that there is a population of FRBs that are undetected by current surveys.
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Authors: Manisha Caleb, Themiya Nanayakkara, B. W. Stappers, Inés Pastor-Marazuela, Ilya S. Khrykin, Karl Glazebrook, Nicolás Tejos, Jason Xavier Prochaska, Kaustubh M. Rajwade, Lluís Mas-Ribas, Laura Driessen, Wen‐fai Fong, Alexa C. Gordon, Jordan Luke Hoffmann, Clancy W. James, F. Jankowski, Lordrick Kahinga, M. Kramer, Sunil Simha, E D Barr, M C Bezuidenhout, Xihan Deng, Zeren Lin, Lachlan James Marnoch, D. Christopher Martin, Anya E. Nugent, Kavya Shaji, Jun Tian
Institutions: University of Chicago, Northwestern University, The University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Oxford, University of Manchester, Curtin University, University of Amsterdam, Macquarie University, University of California, Santa Cruz, The University of Dodoma, University of South Africa, Smithsonian Institution, California Institute of Technology, ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Australian Research Council, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Australia Telescope National Facility, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of California Observatories