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Searching for Historical Extragalactic Optical Transients Associated with Fast Radio Bursts

Y. Dong, C. D. Kilpatrick, W. Fong, A. P. Curtin, S. Opoku, B. C. Andersen, A. M. Cook, T. Eftekhari, E. Fonseca, B. M. Gaensler, R. C. Joseph, J. F. Kaczmarek, L. A. Kahinga, V. Kaspi, A. E. Lanman, M. Lazda, C. Leung, K. W. Masui, D. Michilli, K. Nimmo, A. Pandhi, A. B. Pearlman, M. Sammons, P. Scholz, V. Shah, K. Shin, K. Smith

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether fast radio bursts (FRBs) are associated with past optical transients, as a test of FRB progenitor channels such as magnetars formed in core-collapse supernovae. It develops a crossmatching framework using 83 CHIME-KKO and 93 literature well-localized FRBs, a simulated FRB population to quantify random coincidences, and an optical-transient catalog from the Transient Name Server and CBAT. It finds no significant FRB–SN associations within current 5-sigma localization uncertainties (except for a previously identified potential counterpart to FRB 20180916B) and constrains the ejecta-transparency delay to be at least 6–10 years, implying that only a fraction of SNe could host observable FRBs. The study provides quantitative expectations for observable FRB–SN associations, highlights a need for about ~22,700 FRBs to yield one chance association at CHIME/Outriggers rates, and notes that future Rubin Observatory SN detections at z<1 should increase potential matches; the authors also offer a publicly available, adaptable framework for future searches.

Abstract

We present a systematic search for past supernovae (SNe) and other historical optical transients at the positions of fast radio burst (FRB) sources to test FRB progenitor systems. Our sample comprises 83 FRBs detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and its KKO Outrigger, along with 93 literature FRBs representing all known well-localized FRBs. We search for optical transients coincident in position and redshift with FRBs and find no significant associations within the 5-sigma FRB localization uncertainties except for a previously identified potential optical counterpart to FRB 20180916B. By constraining the timescale for SN ejecta to become transparent to FRB emission, we predict that it takes at least 6-10 years before the FRB emission can escape. From this, we infer that approximately 7% of matched optical transients, up to 30% of currently known SNe, and up to 40% of core-collapse SNe could have an observable FRB based on timescales alone. We derive the number of new, well-localized FRBs required to produce one FRB-SN match by chance, and find it will take ~ 22,700 FRBs to yield one chance association at the projected CHIME/FRB Outrigger detection rate. Looking forward, we demonstrate redshift overlap between SNe detected by the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and CHIME/FRB Outrigger FRBs, indicating the prospect of an increase in potential associations at redshift z < 1. Our framework is publicly available, flexible to a wide range of transient timescales and FRB localization sizes, and can be applied to any optical transient populations in future searches.

Searching for Historical Extragalactic Optical Transients Associated with Fast Radio Bursts

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether fast radio bursts (FRBs) are associated with past optical transients, as a test of FRB progenitor channels such as magnetars formed in core-collapse supernovae. It develops a crossmatching framework using 83 CHIME-KKO and 93 literature well-localized FRBs, a simulated FRB population to quantify random coincidences, and an optical-transient catalog from the Transient Name Server and CBAT. It finds no significant FRB–SN associations within current 5-sigma localization uncertainties (except for a previously identified potential counterpart to FRB 20180916B) and constrains the ejecta-transparency delay to be at least 6–10 years, implying that only a fraction of SNe could host observable FRBs. The study provides quantitative expectations for observable FRB–SN associations, highlights a need for about ~22,700 FRBs to yield one chance association at CHIME/Outriggers rates, and notes that future Rubin Observatory SN detections at z<1 should increase potential matches; the authors also offer a publicly available, adaptable framework for future searches.

Abstract

We present a systematic search for past supernovae (SNe) and other historical optical transients at the positions of fast radio burst (FRB) sources to test FRB progenitor systems. Our sample comprises 83 FRBs detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and its KKO Outrigger, along with 93 literature FRBs representing all known well-localized FRBs. We search for optical transients coincident in position and redshift with FRBs and find no significant associations within the 5-sigma FRB localization uncertainties except for a previously identified potential optical counterpart to FRB 20180916B. By constraining the timescale for SN ejecta to become transparent to FRB emission, we predict that it takes at least 6-10 years before the FRB emission can escape. From this, we infer that approximately 7% of matched optical transients, up to 30% of currently known SNe, and up to 40% of core-collapse SNe could have an observable FRB based on timescales alone. We derive the number of new, well-localized FRBs required to produce one FRB-SN match by chance, and find it will take ~ 22,700 FRBs to yield one chance association at the projected CHIME/FRB Outrigger detection rate. Looking forward, we demonstrate redshift overlap between SNe detected by the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and CHIME/FRB Outrigger FRBs, indicating the prospect of an increase in potential associations at redshift z < 1. Our framework is publicly available, flexible to a wide range of transient timescales and FRB localization sizes, and can be applied to any optical transient populations in future searches.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 5 sections, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Data
  3. Observed FRB Samples
  4. Simulated FRB Sample
  5. Optical Transients Catalog

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Distributions of the FRB position, DM, semi-major axis ($a$), and orientation angle ($$) of the localization ellipses for a total of 415,000 simulated FRBs (yellow) in comparison to the observed distributions of 83 CHIME-KKO FRBs (blue). 1D KS tests indicate that our simulation accurately models the distribution of these parameters, except for declination, which is more aligned with those of FRBs from the first CHIME/FRB catalog.