Tau.Neutrino said:
Astronomers discover clues that unveil the mystery of fast radio bursts
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs—powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves coming from deep space outside the Milky Way Galaxy—have been among the most mysterious astronomical phenomena ever observed. Since FRBs were first discovered in 2007, astronomers from around the world have used radio telescopes to trace the bursts and look for clues on where they come from and how they’re produced.
more…
> Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China.
The what?
> There are two main questions regarding the origin of FRBs. The first is what are the engines of FRBs and the second is what is the mechanism to produce FRBs. We found the answer to the second question in this paper.
> Two competing theories have been proposed to interpret the mechanism of FRBs. One theory is that they’re similar to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe. The other theory likens them more to radio pulsars, which are spinning neutron stars that emit bright, coherent radio pulses.
Yep.
> The GRB-like models predict a non-varying polarization angle within each burst whereas the pulsar-like models predict variations of the polarization angle.
:-)
> The team used FAST to observe one repeating FRB source and discovered 11 bursts from it. Surprisingly, seven of the 11 bright bursts showed diverse polarization angle swings during each burst. The polarization angles not only varied in each burst, the variation patterns were also diverse among bursts. Our observations essentially rules out the GRB-like models and offers support to the pulsar-like models.
Nice work. For repeating FRBs. Not necessarily true for non-repeating FRBs.