Abstract
We present the first X-ray census of fast radio burst (FRB) host galaxies to conduct the deepest search for active galactic nuclei (AGN) and X-ray counterparts to date. Our sample includes seven well-localized FRBs with unambiguous host associations and existing deep Chandra observations, including two events for which we present new observations. We find evidence for AGN in two FRB host galaxies based on the presence of X-ray emission coincident with their centers, including the detection of a luminous (L X ≈ 5 × 1042 erg s−1) X-ray source at the nucleus of FRB 20190608B’s host, for which we infer an SMBH mass of M BH ∼ 108 M ⊙ and an Eddington ratio L bol/L Edd ≈ 0.02, characteristic of geometrically thin disks in Seyfert galaxies. We also report nebular emission-line fluxes for 24 highly secure FRB hosts (including 10 hosts for the first time), and assess their placement on a BPT diagram, finding that FRB hosts trace the underlying galaxy population. We further find that the hosts of repeating FRBs are not confined to the star-forming locus, contrary to previous findings. Finally, we place constraints on associated X-ray counterparts to FRBs in the context of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), and find that existing X-ray limits for FRBs rule out ULXs brighter than L X ≳ 1040 erg s−1. Leveraging the CHIME/FRB catalog and existing ULX catalogs, we search for spatially coincident ULX-FRB pairs. We identify a total of 28 ULXs spatially coincident with the localization regions for 17 FRBs, but find that the DM-inferred redshifts for the FRBs are inconsistent with the ULX redshifts, disfavoring an association between these specific ULX-FRB pairs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 66 |
| Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
| Volume | 958 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2023 |
Funding
We thank Kari A. Frank, Paul Green, Alice P. Curtin, Kristina Nyland, and Victoria Kaspi for helpful discussions. T.E. is supported by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51504.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. W.F. gratefully acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under CAREER grant No. AST-2047919, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell Scholar Award #28284. N.S. acknowledges the support from NASA (grant No. 80NSSC22K0332), NASA FINESST (grant No. 80NSSC22K1597), and Columbia University Dean’s fellowship. S.B. is supported by a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Fellowship (VI.Veni.212.058). Y.D. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-1842165. A.T.D. and R.M.S. acknowledge support through Australian Research Council ARC DP DP220102305. R.M.S. acknowledges support through Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT190100155. J.X.P., A.C.G., Y.D., W.F., T.E., N.T., and C.D.K. acknowledge support from NSF grants AST-1911140, AST-1910471, and AST-2206490 as members of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up team. A.B.P. is a Banting Fellow, a McGill Space Institute (MSI) Fellow, and a Fonds de Recherche du Quebec—Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) postdoctoral fellow. We thank Kari A. Frank, Paul Green, Alice P. Curtin, Kristina Nyland, and Victoria Kaspi for helpful discussions. T.E. is supported by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51504.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. W.F. gratefully acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under CAREER grant No. AST-2047919, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell Scholar Award #28284. N.S. acknowledges the support from NASA (grant No. 80NSSC22K0332), NASA FINESST (grant No. 80NSSC22K1597), and Columbia University Dean’s fellowship. S.B. is supported by a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Fellowship (VI.Veni.212.058). Y.D. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-1842165. A.T.D. and R.M.S. acknowledge support through Australian Research Council ARC DP DP220102305. R.M.S. acknowledges support through Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT190100155. J.X.P., A.C.G., Y.D., W.F., T.E., N.T., and C.D.K. acknowledge support from NSF grants AST-1911140, AST-1910471, and AST-2206490 as members of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up team. A.B.P. is a Banting Fellow, a McGill Space Institute (MSI) Fellow, and a Fonds de Recherche du Quebec—Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) postdoctoral fellow.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science