First discovered in 2007, fast radio bursts (FRBs) are high power (10⁻¹10² Jy), millisecond-scale, highly dispersive single radio pulses whose record high brightness temperatures suggest a non-thermal emission mechanism. As of March 2018, a total of 32 FRBs have been recorded. There is also one repeating source, from which hundreds of bursts have already been detected. The rate of events is estimated to be several thousand per day per sky (neglecting repeated bursts), and their isotropic distribution on the sky suggests a likely cosmological origin. While numerous hypotheses have been proposed for FRBs since their discovery, the origin of these transients is not yet known. The most promising models either relate them to burst-type radiation from magnetars (neutron stars powered by the dissipation of their magnetic energy) or consider them analogous to giant pulses from some radio pulsars (strongly magnetized rotating neutron stars). Increasing statistics on the observed bursts and improving the characterization of the FRB population will allow the FRBs to become another tool to probe the intergalactic medium, estimate the cosmological parameters and test fundamental physical theories.

Keywords: fast radio bursts, neutron stars, radio astronomy, transient sources PACS: 95.85.Bh, 95.85.Fm, 97.60.Jd (all) DOI: 10.3367/UFNe.2018.03.038313 URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2018/10/c/ 000454141800003 2-s2.0-85059202006 2018PhyU...61..965P Citation: Popov S B, Postnov K A, Pshirkov M S "Fast radio bursts" Phys. Usp. 61 965–979 (2018) BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks Received: 7th, December 2017, accepted: 16th, March 2018 Оригинал: Попов С Б, Постнов К А, Пширков М С «Быстрые радиовсплески» УФН 188 1063–1079 (2018); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.2018.03.038313