Gemini MCAO imaging of the host galaxies of Fast Radio Bursts
PI:
Stuart Ryder
Co-I(s):
Ryan Shannon, Keith Bannister, Lachlan Marnoch, Nicolas Tejos, Xavier Prochaska, Erik Kool
Abstract
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-timescale radio pulses that originate in distant galaxies but whose origin is unknown. The groundbreaking ability of our Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) survey to detect and localise one-off FRBs to sub-arcsecond accuracy enables us to be the first to study in detail the environments that produce the most common FRBs. We propose to use GeMS+GSAOI with the new NGS2 system to image the host galaxies of our ASKAP-localised bursts at a spatial resolution comparable to the precision of these localisations, and thus place constraints on their progenitors by understanding where they occur.