Laura Spitler – A Brief History of Fast Radio Bursts

Fast radio bursts are millisecond-duration radio beacons from a so-far unidentified class of extragalactic sources first discovered about a decade ago. Their inferred distances, and therefore radio burst energies, challenge models based on known source classes, while their inferred rates suggest they are fairly common. While most sources have so-far been observed as one off events, the recent localization of the sole repeating FRB to a low metallicity dwarf galaxy has provided key insights into this population. Several new telescopes coming online in the next year predict a flood of new detections, providing relief to a detection-starved field.