Burst detection from FRB 20201124A using the Westerbork-RT1 25-m telescope

ATel #15190; O. S. Ould-Boukattine (UvA), F. Kirsten (ASTRON, Chalmers), K. Nimmo (ASTRON, UvA), M. P. Snelders (UvA), J. W.T. Hessels (ASTRON, UvA), R. Blaauw (ASTRON), M. Gawronski (NCU, Torun), J. J. Sluman (ASTRON)
on 28 Jan 2022; 21:39 UT
Distributed as an Instant Email Notice Transients
Credential Certification: Jason W.T. Hessels (j.w.t.hessels@uva.nl)

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We report the detection of a fast radio burst from FRB 20201124A using the Westerbork-RT1 25-m telescope. Observations were done at a central frequency of 1323.49 MHz using a bandwidth of 128 MHz. We use a DM of 410.775 pc cm^-3, as determined in our analysis of bursts discovered using the Onsala telescope (ATel #14605, Kirsten et al., in prep.).

Fluence: 32 +/- 3 Jy ms
Arrival Time (MJD): 59602.992809162 at infinite frequency at the solar system barycentre (in TDB) using a DM of 410.775 pc cm^-3 and DM constant 4.14880568679703 GHz^2 cm^3 pc^-1 ms.

FRB 20201124A has been described as one of the most active FRB sources to date, having burst rates as high as ~45 bursts/hour (Lee et al. 2021). The source entered a period of high activity in February-April 2021 (Lanman et al. 2021), and multiple studies have already been published, including a host galaxy association (Fong et al. 2021; Ravi et al. 2021), milliarcsecond localization (Nimmo et al. 2021, arXiv:2111.01600) and studies of polarization in the bursts (Hilmarsson et al. 2021; Kumar et al. 2021). Later in September 2021, multiple bursts were reported by CHIME/FRB and Effelsberg, possibly indicating the start of a new activity phase (ATel #14933).

The detection of a new burst from FRB 20201124A with Westerbork-RT1 at 1323.49 MHz could indicate that the source is again starting a new activity cycle. We therefore encourage follow-up observations at all wavelengths.

The observation reported here is part of a high-cadence multi-wavelength observation campaign of FRB 20201124A using multiple, 25-30-m dishes that are also part of the European VLBI Network (EVN). Our observing strategy has been described earlier in ATel #14605 and further details about our burst search pipeline can be found in Kirsten et al. (2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01246-3). A detailed analysis of this burst and others detected in this campaign (ATel #14605) will be presented in a forthcoming paper (Kirsten et al., in prep.).

Dedispersed plot of the burst