Physical Society Colloquium

Zooming in on Fast Radio Bursts in Space and Time

Jason Hessels

Department of Physics
McGill University

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are so luminous that we can detect them from distances of billions of lightyears. They illuminate the otherwise invisible plasma between stars and galaxies, and yet their origin largely remains a mystery. I will explain how we can solve this mystery by localising FRBs to their precise galactic neighbourhoods and by deciphering the properties of these signals at the highest-possible time and frequency resolution. Given the prolific rate of FRBs observable from Earth, they are rapidly becoming a unique and powerful tool for studying the cosmos. What's more, we have still only scratched the surface in terms of our ability to detect FRB-like signals. With new and enhanced radio telescopes, we will soon search an even broader parameter space over a vast range of timescales. This is likely to reveal previously unseen astrophysical phenomena that will help us probe the extremes of the Universe.