2014/09/30 by Z. Zheng, E. O. Ofek, S. R. Kulkarni +2 · 117 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #COSMIC cancer database #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Intergalactic medium #Intergalactic travel #Measure (data warehouse) #Point (geometry) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Reionization #Rotation (mathematics) #Sensitivity (control systems) #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/797/1/71
published in The Astrophysical Journal 797(1), 71 (IOP Publishing) · 4 pages, 1 figure; Typos for the variable x in Eq.6 corrected; Published in ApJ; Originally the Appendix E of arXiv:1402.4766; Separated from the main paper upon the referee's request
openalex publication_date 2014/11/24 · arxiv created 2015/12/28 · arxiv updated 2015/12/29 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The recently discovered fast radio bursts (FRBs), presumably of extragalactic origin, have the potential to become a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We point out a few such potential applications. We provide expressions for the dispersion measure and rotation measure as a function of redshift, and we discuss the sensitivity of these measures to the He ii reionization and the IGM magnetic field. Finally, we calculate the microlensing effect from an isolated, extragalactic stellar-mass compact object on the FRB spectrum. The time delays between the two lensing images will induce constructive and destructive interference, leaving a specific imprint on the spectra of FRBs. With a high all-sky rate, a large statistical sample of FRBs is expected to make these applications feasible.