A two-minute burst of highly polarized radio emission originating from low Galactic latitude
ABSTRACT Several sources of repeating coherent bursts of radio emission with periods of many minutes have now been reported in the literature. These ‘ultralong period’ (ULP) sources have no clear multiwavelength counterparts and challenge canonical pulsar emission models, leading to debate regarding their nature. In this work, we report the discovery of a bright, highly polarized burst of radio emission at low Galactic latitude as part of a wide-field survey for transient and variable radio sources. ASKAP J175534.9$-$252749.1 does not appear to repeat, with only a single intense two-minute $\sim$200-mJy burst detected from 60 h of observations. The burst morphology and polarization properties are comparable to those of classical pulsars but the duration is more than one hundred times longer, analogous to ULPs. Combined with the existing ULP population, this suggests that these sources have a strong Galactic latitude dependence and hints at an unexplored population of transient and variable radio sources in the thin disc of the Milky Way. The resemblance of this burst with both ULPs and pulsars calls for a unified coherent emission model for objects with spin periods from milliseconds to tens of minutes. However, whether or not these are all neutron stars or have the same underlying power source remains open for debate.
Authors
- Laura Driessen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4405-3273)
- A. Stewart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8026-5903)
- Hao Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9586-7904)
- R. M. Shannon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7285-6348)
- L S Oswald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0838-0680)
- Akash Anumarlapudi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8935-9882)
- David L. Kaplan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6295-2881)
- James Freeburn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7990-0547)
- Tara Murphy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2686-438X)
- N. Hurley‐Walker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5119-4808)
- Joshua Pritchard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1575-5249)
- A D Cameron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2037-4216)
- Katie Auchettl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-9152)
- Dougal Dobie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0699-7019)
- M. Bailes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3294-3081)
- Andrew Zic (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9583-2947)
- M. E. Lower (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9208-0009)
- E. Lenc (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9994-1593)
- Adam T. Deller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9434-3837)
- Yuanming Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0203-1196)
- Ziteng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-9823)
- Jeffrey Cooke
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Australia Telescope National Facility (AU)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Curtin University (AU)
- Northeast Catholic College (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- SKA Observatory (GB)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU)
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU)
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2024-10-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2376
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- GNSS positioning and interference
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 10.39
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Science and Industry Endowment Fund
- Magdalen College, University of Oxford
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- National Research Foundation
- Australian Research Council