Physical constraints on the sources of fast radio bursts are few, and therefore viable theoretical models are many. However, no one model can match all the available observational characteristics, meaning that these radio bursts remain one of the most mysterious phenomena in astrophysics.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Lorimer, D. R., Bailes, M., McLaughlin, M. A., Narkevic, D. J. & Crawford, F. Science 318, 777–780 (2007).
Thornton, D. et al. Science 341, 53–56 (2013).
Kulkarni, S. R., Ofek, E. O., Neill, J. D., Zheng, Z. & Juric, M. Astrophys. J. 797, 70 (2014).
Schmidt, M. Astrophys. J. 151, 393 (1968).
Oppermann, N., Yu, H.-R. & Pen, U.-L. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 475, 5109–5115 (2018).
Cordes, J. M. et al. Astrophys. J. 842, 35 (2017).
Main, R. et al. Nature 557, 522–525 (2018).
Houde, M., Mathews, A. & Rajabi, F. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 475, 514–522 (2018).
Eilek, J. A. & Hankins, T. H. J. Plasma Phys. 82, 635820302 (2016).
Petroff, E. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 469, 4465–4482 (2017).
Eatough, R. P. et al. Nature 501, 391–394 (2013).
Petroff, E. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 451, 3933–3940 (2015).
Loeb, A., Shvartzvald, Y. & Maoz, D. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 439, L46–L50 (2014).
Lyutikov, M., Burzawa, L. & Popov, S. B. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 462, 941–950 (2016).
Pen, U.-L. & Connor, L. Astrophys. J. 807, 179 (2015).
Margalit, B. & Metzger, B. D. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.09969 (2018).
Falcke, H. & Rezzolla, L. Astron. Astrophys. 562, A137 (2014).
Brook, P. R. et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. 780, L31 (2014).
Wang, W. et al. Astrophys. J. 852, 140 (2018).
Shand, Z., Ouyed, A., Koning, N. & Ouyed, R. Res. Astron. Astrophys. 16, 80 (2016).
Totani, T. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 65, L12 (2013).
Vieyro, F. L., Romero, G. E., Bosch-Ramon, V., Marcote, B. & del Valle, M. V. Astron. Astrophys. 602, A64 (2017).
Thompson, C. Astrophys. J. 844, 162 (2017).
Barrau, A., Rovelli, C. & Vidotto, F. Phys. Rev. D 90, 127503 (2014).
Brandenberger, R., Cyr, B. & Varna Iyer, A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.02397 (2017).
Luan, J. & Goldreich, P. Astrophys. J. Lett. 785, L26 (2014).
Muñoz, J. B., Kovetz, E. D., Dai, L. & Kamionkowski, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 091301 (2016).
Rahvar, S. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 479, 406–414 (2018).
Yang, H., Nishizawa, A. & Pen, U.-L. Phys. Rev. D 95, 084049 (2017).
Mickaliger, M. B. et al. Astrophys. J. 760, 64 (2012).
Lyubarsky, Y. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 442, L9–L13 (2014).
Xu, J. & Han, J. L. Res. Astron. Astrophys. 15, 1629 (2015).
Connor, L., Sievers, J. & Pen, U.-L. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 458, L19–L23 (2017).
Hippke, M., Domainko, W. F. & Learned, J. G. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05245 (2015).
Acknowledgements
I thank L. Connor for helpful feedback and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pen, UL. The nature of fast radio bursts. Nat Astron 2, 842–844 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0620-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0620-z
This article is cited by
-
The future of fast radio burst science
Nature Astronomy (2018)