Detection of a highly scattered Fast Radio Burst at the Molonglo Radio Telescope

ATel #10867; W. Farah (Swinburne University of Technology “SUT”), M. Bailes (SUT), A. Jameson (SUT), C. Flynn (SUT), I. Andreoni (SUT), T. Bateman (The University of Sydney “USyd”), E. D. Barr (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie), S. Bhandari (SUT), M. Caleb (University of Manchester), D. Campbell-Wilson (USyd), A. Deller (SUT), A. J. Green (USyd), R. W. Hunstead (USyd), F. Jankowski (SUT), E. F. Keane (Square Kilometer Array Organisation), V. Venkatraman Krishnan (SUT), M. O'Neill (SUT), S. Oslowski (SUT), A. Parthasarathy (SUT), K. Plant (Caltech), V. Ravi (Caltech), D. Temby (USyd)
on 19 Oct 2017; 02:19 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Wael Farah (wfarah@swin.edu.au)

Tweet

On 2017-09-22-11:23:33.4 UTC (2017-09-22.4746921296), UTMOST found a new FRB as part of the ongoing search program at the Molonglo Radio Telescope (see Bailes et al. 2017). This is the fifth Molonglo FRB overall (see ATel #10697 and Caleb et al. 2017).

The optimal dispersion measure (DM) that maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio is: 1111 pc cm^-3, which is substantially in excess of the Galactic DM as estimated by the NE2001 model (~ 45 pc cm^-3) and the YMW16 model (~ 33 pc cm^-3). The upper limit on the DM-inferred redshift is thus ~0.8. The S/N in the detection beam is 22, and an early estimate of the event's fluence is ~ 60 +/- 15 Jy ms. The FRB's estimated width (full width half power) is 26 ms.

Source localisation is excellent in the Right Ascension (~5 arcsec at 1-sigma) but poor in Declination (~1.2 deg at 1-sigma). The most likely position is RA = 21:29:50.61, DEC = -07:59:40.49, J2000, Galactic: Gl = 45.1 deg, Gb = -38.7 deg. The 95% confidence localisation arc is as follows:

21:29:50.50 -10:21:32.1
21:29:50.48 -09:52:40.9
21:29:50.49 -09:23:49.8
21:29:50.52 -08:54:58.6
21:29:50.56 -08:26:07.4
21:29:50.62 -07:57:16.2
21:29:50.63 -07:52:27.7
21:29:50.71 -07:23:36.5
21:29:50.81 -06:54:45.3
21:29:50.92 -06:25:54.1
21:29:51.06 -05:57:03.0
21:29:51.21 -05:28:11.8

A formula describing the localisation arc is:
RA = 21.500702 + 3.753954e-4*(DEC - 7.994579) + 1.053305e-5*(DEC - 7.994579)^2
Where RA is in hours, DEC is in deg, and is valid in the DEC range [-12.36,-3.63]

For the dispersion sweep and localisation plots, see:
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/research/utmost/?p=1413

Follow-up observations of the FRB are encouraged.