There’s a Strange New Theory For Those Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts in Space
…However, according to a new study by a team of Chinese astronomers, FRBs may be linked to crusts forming around “strange stars”. According to a model they created, it is the collapse of these crusts that lead to high-energy bursts that can be seen light-years away.
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Tau.Neutrino said:
There’s a Strange New Theory For Those Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts in Space…However, according to a new study by a team of Chinese astronomers, FRBs may be linked to crusts forming around “strange stars”. According to a model they created, it is the collapse of these crusts that lead to high-energy bursts that can be seen light-years away.
more…
Seems highly speculative.
Feeling low tonight, hopefully cheer up after a good night’s sleep.
Bubblecar said:
Feeling low tonight, hopefully cheer up after a good night’s sleep.
That was for chat.
Tau.Neutrino said:
There’s a Strange New Theory For Those Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts in Space…However, according to a new study by a team of Chinese astronomers, FRBs may be linked to crusts forming around “strange stars”. According to a model they created, it is the collapse of these crusts that lead to high-energy bursts that can be seen light-years away.
more…
> Fast Radio Bursts (FBRs) have fascinated astronomers ever since the first one was detected in 2007. This event was named the “Lorimer Burst” after it discoverer, Duncan Lorimer from West Virginia University.
It was actually discovered by his wife, but he gets the credit for publishing it.
> no counterparts in other wavebands have been detected for non-repeating FRBs so far
If I remember correctly, this is false. I read recently that a galaxy far far away had been identified as the source for one of the non-repeating FRBs.
> Over two dozen events have been discovered since 2007 and scientists are still not sure what causes them
Well, if it comes to that, no-one yet has a consistent theory for how any type of supernova can exist. In type 1a supernovas from white dwarf collapse in the presence of a binary star, both options (second star red giant and second star white dwarf) have been ruled out by observations. And for type IIb supernovas no-one has yet been able to get the explosion of a giant star to go to completion.
> these catastrophic events include “magnetar giant flares, the collapses of magnetized supramassive rotating neutron stars, binary neutron star mergers, binary white dwarf mergers, collisions between neutron stars and asteroids/comets, collisions between neutron stars and white dwarfs, and evaporation of primordial black holes. Alternately, in the case of the repeating FRBs, various models suggest that these could be caused by highly magnetized pulsars traveling through asteroid belts, neutron star-white dwarf binary mass transfer, and star quakes of pulsars.
I haven’t heard of most of these before.
> a new model whereby the build up and collapse of matter on certain types of neutron stars (aka. “strange stars”) could explain the behavior of FRBs.
This is practically identical to the known presence of “glitches” in neutron star rotation curves. Irregular collapses of crustal matter cause the rotation to speed up. This also appears in the list above as “star quakes on pulsars”. So in other words it’s not a particularly new idea. But a glitch containing enough energy to generate a FRB, no way.
> Strange stars
The concept of neutron stars being filled with strange matter dates back at least to 1986.
Strange Stars Astrophysics Journal 1986
This article starts “Strange matter, a form of quark matter that is postulated to be absolutely stable, may be the true ground state of hardons, not 56Fe”.
Can you say “extremely unlikely”?
> But a glitch containing enough energy to generate a FRB, no way.
Unless the neutron star (or strange star) is an otherwise invisible object within a few hundred light years of us, ie. unless local space is chock full of invisible neutron stars. Again, no way.