Lessons learned from CHIME repeating FRBs

Abstract

CHIME has now detected 18 repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). We explore what can be learned about the energy distribution and activity level of the repeaters by constructing a realistic FRB population model, taking into account wait-time clustering and cosmological effects. For a power-law energy distribution dN/dE ∝ E^(-γ) for the repeating bursts, a steep energy distribution means that most repeaters should be found in the local Universe with low dispersion measure (DM), whereas a shallower distribution means some repeaters may be detected at large distances with high DM. It is especially interesting that there are two high-DM repeaters (FRB 181017 and 190417) with DM ~ 1000 pc/cm³. These can be understood if: (i) the energy distribution is shallow γ = 1.7^(+0.3)_(-0.1) (68% confidence) or (ii) a small fraction of sources are extremely active. In the second scenario, these high-DM sources should be repeating more than 100 times more frequently than FRB 121102, and the energy index is constrained to be gamma = 1.9^(+0.3)_(-0.2) (68% confidence). In either case, this power-law index is consistent with the energy dependence of the non-repeating ASKAP sample, which suggests that they are drawn from the same population. Finally, we show that the CHIME repeating fraction can be used to infer the distribution of activity level in the whole population.