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

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.