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American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6462(366), p. 231-234, 2019

DOI: 10.1126/science.aay0073

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The low density and magnetization of a massive galaxy halo exposed by a fast radio burst

Journal article published in 2019 by J. Xavier Prochaska ORCID, Jean-Pierre Macquart ORCID, Matthew McQuinn ORCID, Sunil Simha ORCID, Ryan M. Shannon ORCID, Cherie K. Day ORCID, Lachlan Marnoch ORCID, Stuart Ryder ORCID, Adam Deller ORCID, Keith W. Bannister ORCID, Shivani Bhandari ORCID, Rongmon Bordoloi ORCID, Chris Flynn, John Bunton ORCID, Elizabeth K. Mahony ORCID and other authors.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Present-day galaxies are surrounded by cool and enriched halo gas extending for hundreds of kiloparsecs. This halo gas is thought to be the dominant reservoir of material available to fuel future star formation, but direct constraints on its mass and physical properties have been difficult to obtain. We report the detection of a fast radio burst (FRB 181112), localized with arcsecond precision, that passes through the halo of a foreground galaxy. Analysis of the burst shows that the halo gas has low net magnetization and turbulence. Our results imply predominantly diffuse gas in massive galactic halos, even those hosting active supermassive black holes, contrary to some previous results.

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