Mapping Obscured Star Formation in the Host Galaxy of FRB 20201124A

Yuxin Dong, Tarraneh Eftekhari, Wen Fai Fong, Adam T. Deller, Alexandra G. Mannings, Sunil Simha, Navin Sridhar, Marc Rafelski, Alexa C. Gordon, Shivani Bhandari, Cherie K. Day, Kasper E. Heintz, Jason W.T. Hessels, Joel Leja, Clancy W. James, Charles D. Kilpatrick, Elizabeth K. Mahony, Benito Marcote, Ben Margalit, Kenzie NimmoJ. Xavier Prochaska, Alicia Rouco Escorial, Stuart D. Ryder, Genevieve Schroeder, Ryan M. Shannon, Nicolas Tejos

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11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present high-resolution 1.5-6 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical and infrared observations of the extremely active repeating fast radio burst (FRB) FRB 20201124A and its barred spiral host galaxy. We constrain the location and morphology of star formation in the host and search for a persistent radio source (PRS) coincident with FRB 20201124A. We resolve the morphology of the radio emission across all frequency bands and measure a star formation rate (SFR) ≈ 8.9 M yr−1, approximately ≈2.5-6 times larger than optically inferred SFRs, demonstrating dust-obscured star formation throughout the host. Compared to a sample of all known FRB hosts with radio emission, the host of FRB 20201124A has the most significantly obscured star formation. While HST observations show the FRB to be offset from the bar or spiral arms, the radio emission extends to the FRB location. We propose that the FRB progenitor could have formed in situ (e.g., a magnetar born from a massive star explosion). It is still plausible, although less likely, that the progenitor of FRB 20201124A migrated from the central bar of the host. We further place a limit on the luminosity of a putative PRS at the FRB position of L 6.0GHz ≲ 1.8 ×1027 erg s−1 Hz−1, among the deepest PRS luminosity limits to date. However, this limit is still broadly consistent with both magnetar nebulae and hypernebulae models assuming a constant energy injection rate of the magnetar and an age of ≳105 yr in each model, respectively.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number44
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume961
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2024

Funding

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. We thank Drew Medlin from the NRAO for the reduction of our radio data, and Joseph Michail and Michael Zevin for helpful discussions. Y.D. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-1842165. 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. S.B. is supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Fellowship (VI.Veni.212.058). W.F. gratefully acknowledges support by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell Scholar Award No. 28284. C.D.K. is partly supported by a CIERA postdoctoral fellowship. B.M. acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and through the Unit of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023 award to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (CEX2019-000918-M). N.S. acknowledges the support from NASA (grant No. 80NSSC22K0332), NASA FINESST (grant No. 80NSSC22K1597), and Columbia University Dean’s fellowship. Y.D., T.E., W.F., A.C.G., C.D.K., A.G.M., J.X.P., S.S., and N.T. acknowledge support from NSF grants AST1911140, AST-1910471, and AST-2206490 as members of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up team. The Fong Group at Northwestern acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. AST-1814782, AST-1909358 and CAREER grant No. AST-2047919. This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program No. 16877. We thank Drew Medlin from the NRAO for the reduction of our radio data, and Joseph Michail and Michael Zevin for helpful discussions. Y.D. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-1842165. 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. S.B. is supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Fellowship (VI.Veni.212.058). W.F. gratefully acknowledges support by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell Scholar Award No. 28284. C.D.K. is partly supported by a CIERA postdoctoral fellowship. B.M. acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and through the Unit of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020–2023 award to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (CEX2019-000918-M). N.S. acknowledges the support from NASA (grant No. 80NSSC22K0332), NASA FINESST (grant No. 80NSSC22K1597), and Columbia University Dean’s fellowship. Y.D., T.E., W.F., A.C.G., C.D.K., A.G.M., J.X.P., S.S., and N.T. acknowledge support from NSF grants AST1911140, AST-1910471, and AST-2206490 as members of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up team. The Fong Group at Northwestern acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. AST-1814782, AST-1909358 and CAREER grant No. AST-2047919.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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