Local Magnetar Solution to Extragalactic Fast Radio Bursts

Ue-Li Pen, Liam Connor

Published 2015-01-07Version 1

We synthesize the known information about Fast Radio Bursts and radio magnetars, and quantify an allowed origin near nuclei of external galaxies. In this scenario, the high DM is dominated by the environment of the FRB, modelled on the known properties of the Milky Way Center. We propose giant pulses or outbursts from galactic center magnetars as the source of Fast Radio Bursts, whose properties we extrapolate from the radio loud magnetar ~2 arcseconds from Sgr A* and from the properties of soft gamma repeaters and Crab-like giant pulses. This is consistent with the DM's, scattering tails, and polarization properties of observed FRB's. The scenario is readily testable with VLBI measurements as well as with flux count statistics from large surveys such as CHIME or UTMOST.