A fast radio burst source at a complex magnetised site in a barred galaxy

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are highly dispersed radio bursts prevailing in the universe. The recent detection of FRB~200428 from a Galactic magnetar suggested that at least some FRBs originate from magnetars, but it is unclear whether the majority of cosmological FRBs, especially the actively repeating ones, are produced from the magnetar channel. Here we report the detection of 1863 polarised bursts from the repeating source FRB~20201124A during a dedicated radio observational campaign of Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The large sample of radio bursts detected in 88 hr over 54 days indicate a significant, irregular, short-time variation of the Faraday rotation measure (RM) of the source during the first 36 days, followed by a constant RM during the later 18 days. Significant circular polarisation up to 75\% was observed in a good fraction of bursts. Evidence suggests that some low-level circular polarisation originates from the conversion from linear polarisation during the propagation of the radio waves, but an intrinsic radiation mechanism is required to produce the higher degree of circular polarisation. All of these features provide evidence for a more complicated, dynamically evolving, magnetised immediate environment around this FRB source. Its host galaxy was previously known. Our optical observations reveal that it is a Milky-Way-sized, metal-rich, barred-spiral galaxy at redshift z=0.09795+-0.00003, with the FRB residing in a low stellar density, interarm region at an intermediate galactocentric distance, an environment not directly expected for a young magnetar formed during an extreme explosion of a massive star.