Magnetospheric Curvature Radiation by Bunches as Emission Mechanism for Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

Coherent curvature radiation as the radiation mechanism for fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been discussed since FRBs were discovered. We study the spectral and polarization properties of repeating FRBs within the framework of coherent curvature radiation by charged bunches in the magnetosphere of a highly magnetized neutron star. The spectra can be generally characterized by multisegmented broken power laws, and evolve as bunches move and the line of sight sweeps. Emitted waves are highly linear polarized and polarization angles are flat across the burst envelopes, if the line of sight is confined to the beam within an angle of 1/gamma, while a circular polarization fraction becomes strong for off-beam cases. The spectro-temporal pulse-to-pulse properties can be a natural consequence due to the magnetospheric geometry. We investigate the relationship between drift rate, central frequency, and temporal duration. The radius-to-frequency mapping is derived and simulated within the assumptions of both dipolar and quadrupolar magnetic configurations. The geometric results show that FRBs are emitted in field lines more curved than open field lines for a dipolar geometry. This suggests that there are most likely existing multipolar magnetic configurations in the emission region.

Automated summary

The study investigates coherent curvature radiation as the radiation mechanism for fast radio bursts (FRBs), finding that FRBs may be generated by charged bunches in the magnetosphere of highly magnetized neutron stars. The findings suggest that the spectra of FRBs can be characterized by multisegmented broken power laws and the polarization properties depend on the relative position between the line of sight and the beam of emitted waves.