Extremely bright pulse from FRB20201124A observed with the 25-m Stockert Radio Telescope

ATel #14556; Wolfgang Herrmann (Astropeiler Stockert e. V.)
on 16 Apr 2021; 15:47 UT
Credential Certification: Laura Spitler (lspitler@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)

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We report on the observation of an extremely bright pulse from FRB20201124A observed in L-band with the Stockert 25-m Radio Tele scope. Following the report of enhanced activity by the CHIME/FRB collaboration (ATel #14497) observations with this instrument began on 2021 March 31. Until April 15, a total of approx. 90 hours of observation time had been accumulated distributed over 12 days. Observations were carried out with 100 MHz bandwidth at a center frequency of 1380 MHz with 218.4 microseconds time resolution and 583 MHz spectral resolution. Data was analyzed for single pulses using PRESTO with an S/N threshold of 6. Candidates were subsequently inspected visually.

An extremely bright pulse was detected on 2021 April 15 at 12:23:19.369 UTC using the position of the source as given by Law et.al. in ATel #14526. This pulse had a fluence of 334 Jy ms (+/- 10%) and a peak flux density of 215 Jy (+/- 10%) giving an excellent S/N of 85. The full width half maximum of the pulse was 1.5 ms (+/- 0.2 ms) and the DM was determined to be 412.8 (+/- 0.2) pc/cm^3 We believe this is the pulse with the highest fluence detected from this source so far. A dynamic spectrum is available at the link below. A few other events were noted but the S/N was too low to be conclusive. The source seems to continue to be in an active state and observations will continue.

This detection supports the finding by Kumar et.al (ATels #14508, #14509) that bursts from this source can be detected with smaller apertures and further observations with such instruments are encouraged.

The Stockert 25-m Radio Telescope is located in the western part of Germany close to Effelsberg. It has been built in 1956 and, after a longer hiatus, is back in operation since 2011. It has been refurbished and fitted with new receivers and instrumentation. Presently the instrument is equipped with a dual linear polarization L-band receiver and achieves a SEFD of 1100 Jy. The observatory is operated by Astropeiler Stockert e.V., a non-profit organization of volunteers.

Dynamic spectrum