Fast Radio Bursts or FRB are a relatively recent phenomenon, were discovered in 2007, by Duncan Lorimer, of the University of West Virginia, in the United States, and their collaborators while they studied the data of the observation of pulsars.
1 - Artist's illustration of the Very Large Array indicating the location of FRB 121102. [Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / Hubble Legacy Archive / ESA / NASA]
At first there were few scientists who paid attention to the discovery; They believed there had been errors in the measurement. At the same time for the ufologists, however, it was a proof of signs of intelligent life outside of our galaxy.
The FRB emits in milliseconds the same energy as hundreds of millions of suns. Which led the scientists to think that it wasn’t common Pulsars. Something in which there is consensus is that radio sources are extragalactic, which are far beyond our Milky Way.
Despite the high energies emitted by the FRB, their short duration measured in the range of the microseconds made them too elusive to study them in depth. But thanks to a special FRB, which emits radio waves repeatedly, but randomly. It has allowed Astrophysicists to locate the source of emission.
Using data from the observatories of Arecibo, in Puerto Rico, and Green Bank, in West Virginia, a team of Astrophysicists led by D. Michilli found more than two hundred emissions of the same radio source. Its called FRB 121102.
2 - Linear polarization fraction of the bursts as a function of rotation measure. - D. Michilli et al. in Nature 553, 182-185 (January 11, 2018)
Now they have shown that these radio magnetic emissions are linearly polarized, that is, that the electric field of the waves oscillates in a certain direction. It is known that electromagnetic waves can be partially polarized after having crossed a medium where a strong magnetic field reigns. But the radio waves of FRB 121102 are polarized almost one hundred percent. The crossed magnetic field had to be extremely intense. And polarizations like that of radio waves have been observed around black holes of high mass.
The outbreaks emitted by FRB 121102 are so brief that it has led scientists to think that the source of emission must be a small object, tens of kilometers in diameter, which is the typical size of a neutron star. Therefore, the observations seem to indicate that FRB 121102 is a neutron star submerged in the intense magnetic field that surrounds a black hole of high mass that is close to it and attracts material from the galaxy to itself.
”Therefore, bursts can come from a neutron star in such an environment or could be explained by other models, such as a highly magnetized wind nebula or a supernova remnant surrounding a young neutron star.”
D. Michilli et al. in Nature 553, 182-185 (January 11, 2018)
But it isn't certain that the non-repetitive sources of fast radio bursts are of the same nature as FRB 121102. So there are still many sources of FRB's that are undetermined.
References
Q1, 2 - "An extreme magneto-ionic environment associated with the fast radio burst source FRB 121102" D. Michilli et al. Nature 553, 182-185 (January 11, 2018)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25149
1 - [Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / Hubble Legacy Archive / ESA / NASA]
https://www.google.es/amp/s/public.nrao.edu/news/fast-radio-burst/amp/
