2020/09/30 by Kasper E. Heintz, J. Xavier Prochaska, Sunil Simha +16 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Offset (computer science) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Radio galaxy #Star formation #Stellar mass #Stellar population #Supernova #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abb6fb
Accepted for publication in ApJ. All data are publicly available at https://frbhosts.org and https://github.com/FRBs/FRB. Version 2 of manuscript includes updated FRB uncertainty estimates
openalex created_date 2020/10/01 · arxiv created 2020/10/13 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/01 · arxiv updated 2020/11/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We present observations and detailed characterizations of five new host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs) discovered with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and localized to ≲1″. Combining these galaxies with FRB hosts from the literature, we introduce criteria based on the probability of chance coincidence to define a subsample of 10 highly confident associations (at z = 0.03–0.52), 3 of which correspond to known repeating FRBs. Overall, the FRB-host galaxies exhibit a broad, continuous range of color ( M u − M r = 0.9–2.0), stellar mass ( M ⋆ = 10 8 − 6 × 10 10 M ⊙ ), and star formation rate (SFR = 0.05–10 M ⊙ yr −1 ) spanning the full parameter space occupied by z < 0.5 galaxies. However, they do not track the color–magnitude, SFR– M ⋆ , nor BPT diagrams of field galaxies surveyed at similar redshifts. There is an excess of “green valley” galaxies and an excess of emission-line ratios indicative of a harder radiation field than that generated by star formation alone. From the observed stellar mass distribution, we rule out the hypothesis that FRBs strictly track stellar mass in galaxies (>99% c.l.). We measure a median offset of 3.3 kpc from the FRB to the estimated center of the host galaxies and compare the host-burst offset distribution and other properties with the distributions of long- and short-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs and SGRBs), core-collapse supernovae (CC-SNe), and SNe Ia. This analysis rules out galaxies hosting LGRBs (faint, star-forming galaxies) as common hosts for FRBs (>95% c.l.). Other transient channels (SGRBs, CC-, and SNe Ia) have host-galaxy properties and offsets consistent with the FRB distributions. All of the data and derived quantities are made publicly available on a dedicated website and repository.