Induced Compton Scattering of Radio Pulses From Ultra-Magnetic Neutron Stars

Kiran Eiden, University of California, Berkeley

Photo of Kiran Eiden

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short, intense pulses of radio waves of extraterrestrial origin. Due to their relatively recent discovery, the study of FRBs is a rapidly growing and evolving field, and the root cause of FRBs remains unknown. Observations within the last few years, however, have established a connection between extremely magnetic neutron stars (magnetars) and at least some subset of FRBs. As these radio pulses prop- agate outward from the source, they evolve due to interactions with the environment. This impacts the signal that we receive at radio observatories on Earth. Understanding how the signal transforms due to these interactions (and thus what the original pulse would have looked like) will be important in understanding the underlying mechanism of the bursts. Here we briefly discuss our current understanding of these interactions and the motivation for simulating them in the context of magnetar-powered FRBs. We then present novel numerical methods that we are developing for modeling a process called induced Compton scattering in this context.

Abstract Author(s): Kiran Eiden, Daniel Kasen