Making use of exponential increases in computing power and memory per dollar, radio astronomers have been able to search larger areas of sky with ever higher bandwidth at high time and frequency resolution. In 2007, a mysterious millisecond-duration burst was found around the cellphone band. This kind of signal is now known as fast radio burst (FRB), energetic bursts visible at a cosmological distance. Hundreds of more FRBs have been detected in the past 5 years with dedicated radio surveys. And FAST has become a major player in the FRB follow-ups due to its unprecedented sensitivity. FRBs are a new probe of cosmological matter, since each burst carries information on the number of electrons it encounters before reaching the earth. In this talk, I will review the current understanding of the origin of FRBs, as well as the many remaining mysteries, including the location of the FRBs, the magneto-environment and the long-term periodicity. I will also introduce current and upcoming instruments which will detect more FRBs with orders of magnitude better spatial resolution. The result will be an explosion of opportunity for understanding burst origin and probing cosmic matter distribution at various spatial scales.
Host: Wei Zhu
