In this Letter, we propose that a fast radio burst (FRB) could originate from the magnetic interaction between double neutron stars (NSs) during their final inspiral within the framework of a unipolar inductor model. In this model, an electromotive force is induced on one NS to accelerate electrons to an ultra-relativistic speed instantaneously. We show that coherent curvature radiation from these electrons moving along magnetic field lines in the magnetosphere of the other NS is responsible for the observed FRB signal, that is, the characteristic emission frequency, luminosity, duration, and event rate of FRBs can be well understood. In addition, we discuss several implications of this model, including double-peaked FRBs and possible associations of FRBs with short-duration gamma-ray bursts and gravitational-wave events.

Very recently Spitler et al. (2016) and Scholz et al. (2016) reported their detections of sixteen additional bright bursts from the direction of the fast radio burst (FRB) 121102. This repeating FRB is inconsistent with all the catastrophic event models put forward previously for hypothetically nonrepeating FRBs. Here we propose a different model, in which highly magnetized pulsars travel through asteroid belts of other stars. We show that a repeating FRB could originate from such a pulsar encountering lots of asteroids in the belt. During each pulsar-asteroid impact, an electric field induced outside the asteroid has such a large component parallel to the stellar magnetic field that electrons are torn off the asteroidal surface and accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies instantaneously. Subsequent movement of these electrons along magnetic field lines will cause coherent curvature radiation, which can account for all the properties of an FRB. In addition, this model can self-consistently explain the typical duration, luminosity, and repetitive rate of the seventeen bursts of FRB 121102. The predicted occurrence rate of repeating FRB sources may imply that our model would be testable in the next few years.

We use two model-independent methods to standardize long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using the E iso − E p correlation (log E iso = a + b log E p ), where E iso is the isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray energy and E p is the spectral peak energy. We update 42 long GRBs and attempt to constrain the cosmological parameters. The full sample contains 151 long GRBs with redshifts from 0.0331 to 8.2. The first method is the simultaneous fitting method. We take the extrinsic scatter σ ext into account and assign it to the parameter E iso . The best-fitting values are a = 49.15 ± 0.26, b = 1.42 ± 0.11, σ ext = 0.34 ± 0.03 and Ω m = 0.79 in the flat ΛCDM model. The constraint on Ω m is 0.55 < Ω m < 1 at the 1σ confidence level. If reduced χ 2 method is used, the best-fit results are a = 48.96 ± 0.18, b = 1.52 ± 0.08, and Ω m = 0.50 ± 0.12. The second method uses type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to calibrate the E iso − E p correlation. We calibrate 90 high-redshift GRBs in the redshift range from 1.44 to 8.1. The cosmological constraints from these 90 GRBs are Ω m = 0.23 +0.06 −0.04 for flat ΛCDM and Ω m = 0.18 ± 0.11 and Ω Λ = 0.46 ± 0.51 for non-flat ΛCDM. For the combination of GRB and SNe Ia sample, we obtain Ω m = 0.271 ± 0.019 and h = 0.701 ± 0.002 for the flat ΛCDM and the non-flat ΛCDM, and the results are Ω m = 0.225 ± 0.044, Ω Λ = 0.640 ± 0.082, and h = 0.698 ± 0.004. These results from calibrated GRBs are consistent with that of SNe Ia. Meanwhile, the combined data can improve cosmological constraints significantly, compared to SNe Ia alone. Our results show that the E iso − E p correlation is promising to probe the high-redshift Universe.

In this paper, we propose a new scenario in which a rapidly-rotating strongly-magnetized pulsar without any surrounding supernova ejecta produces fast radio bursts (FRBs) repeatedly via some mechanisms, and meanwhile, an ultra-relativistic electron/positron pair wind from the pulsar sweeps up its ambient dense interstellar medium, giving rise to a non-relativistic pulsar wind nebula (PWN). We show that the synchrotron radio emission from such a PWN is bright enough to account for the recently-discovered persistent radio source associated with the repeating FRB 121102 in reasonable ranges of the model parameters. In addition, our PWN scenario is consistent with the non-evolution of the dispersion measure inferred from all the repeating bursts observed in four years.

Some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have a tera–electron volt (TeV) afterglow, but the early onset of this has not been observed. We report observations with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory of the bright GRB 221009A, which serendipitously occurred within the instrument field of view. More than 64,000 photons >0.2 TeV were detected within the first 3000 seconds. The TeV flux began several minutes after the GRB trigger, then rose to a peak about 10 seconds later. This was followed by a decay phase, which became more rapid ~650 seconds after the peak. We interpret the emission using a model of a relativistic jet with half-opening angle ~0.8°. This is consistent with the core of a structured jet and could explain the high isotropic energy of this GRB.

We investigate emission signatures of binary compact star gravitational wave sources consisting of strongly magnetized neutron stars (NSs) and/or white dwarfs (WDs) in their late-time inspiral phase. Because of electromagnetic interactions between the magnetospheres of the two compact stars, a substantial amount of energy will be extracted, and the resultant power is expected to be ∼ 10 38 − 10 44 erg/s in the last few seconds before the two stars merge, when the binary system contains a NS with a surface magnetic field 10 12 G. The induced electric field in the process can accelerate charged particles up to the EeV energy range. Synchrotron radiation is emitted from energetic electrons, with radiative energies reaching the GeV energy for binary NSs and the MeV energy for NS-WD or double WD binaries. In addition, a blackbody component is also presented and it peaks at several to hundreds keV for binary NSs and at several keV for NS-WD or double WD binaries. The strong angular dependence of the synchrotron radiation and the isotropic nature of the blackbody radiation lead to distinguishable modulation patterns between the two emission components. If coherent curvature radiation is presented, fast radio bursts could be produced. These components provide unique simultaneous electromagnetic signatures as precursors of gravitational wave events associated with magnetized compact star mergers and short gamma ray bursts (e.g., GRB 100717).

In this paper we show that the most luminous supernova discovered very recently, ASASSN-15lh, could have been powered by a newborn ultra-strongly-magnetized pulsar, which initially rotates near the Kepler limit. We find that if this pulsar is a neutron star, its rotational energy could be quickly lost as a result of gravitational-radiation-driven r-mode instability; if it is a strange quark star, however, this instability is highly suppressed due to a large bulk viscosity associated with the nonleptonic weak interaction among quarks and thus most of its rotational energy could be extracted to drive ASASSN-15lh. Therefore, we conclude that such an ultra-energetic supernova provides a possible signature for the birth of a strange quark star.

We have performed a multiwavelength study of supernova remnant (SNR) G57.2+0.8 and its environment. The SNR hosts the magnetar SGR 1935+2154, which emitted an extremely bright millisecond-duration radio burst on 2020 April 28. We used the 12CO and 13CO J = 1–0 data from the Milky Way Image Scroll Painting CO line survey to search for molecular gas associated with G57.2+0.8, in order to constrain the physical parameters (e.g., the distance) of the SNR and its magnetar. We report that SNR G57.2+0.8 is likely impacting the molecular clouds (MCs) at the local standard of rest (LSR) velocity and excites a weak 1720 MHz OH maser with a peak flux density of 47 mJy beam−1. The chance coincidence of a random OH spot falling in the SNR is ≤12%, and the OH–CO correspondence chance is 7% at the maser spot. This combines to give <1% false probability of the OH maser, suggesting a real maser detection. The LSR velocity of the MCs places the SNR and magnetar at a kinematic distance of 6.6 ± 0.7 kpc. The nondetection of thermal X-ray emission from the SNR and the relatively dense environment suggests G57.2+0.8 be an evolved SNR with an age . The explosion energy of G57.2+0.8 is lower than , which is not very energetic even assuming a high ambient density . This reinforces the opinion that magnetars do not necessarily result from very energetic supernova explosions.