Confronting the Magnetar Interpretation of Fast Radio Bursts Through Their Host Galaxy Demographics
We explore the prompt magnetar progenitor scenario in the context of fast
radio burst (FRB) host galaxies demographics and offset distributions.
Magnetars are neutron stars with strong magnetic fields on the order of
$10^{15}$ G with a short decay lifetime of less than $10^4$ years. Due to their
extremely short lifetimes, magnetars should follow the demographics of galaxies
according to their current star-formation rate (SFR). Moreover, we hypothesize
that magnetars should follow the SFR profile within galaxies, which we assume
to follow an exponential profile. We construct a simple model for the host
galaxies of magnetars assuming these events track SFR in all galaxies and
compare it to observed properties from a sample of \nsecure\ secure FRB hosts.
We find the distribution of observed SFRs is inconsistent with the model at
$>95\%$ c.l. The offset distribution is consistent with this scenario; however,
this could be due to the limited sample size and the seeing limited estimates
for the effective radii of the FRB host galaxies. Despite the recent
association of an FRB with a magnetar in the Milky Way, magnetars may not be
the only source of FRBs in the universe, yet any other successful model must
account for the demographics of the FRB host in SFR and their observed
galactocentric offsets.
Authors
Mohammadtaher Safarzadeh, J. Xavier Prochaska, Kasper E. Heintz, Wen-fai Fong