Physical Society Colloquium

Fast Radio Bursts

Victoria Kaspi & Shriharsh Tendulkar

Department of Physics & MSI
McGill University

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a newly discovered and puzzling astrophysical phenomenon. FRBs are short (few-ms) bursts of radio waves that appear to be coming from cosmological distances. The origin of these events is unknown, yet the sky rate, roughly 1000/sky/day, inferred from only ~20 events published so far, suggests they are common in the Universe. We will discuss what is known about FRBs, including the lone repeating FRB and our recent detection of its host galaxy. We will also describe the upcoming CHIME radio telescope, being built in Canada with major McGill participation, that has the potential to detect dozens of FRBs per day and hence help solve the FRB mystery.