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FAST RADIO BURSTS (FRBS) ARE EXTRAGALACTIC PULSES OF RADIO EMISSION WITH WIDTHS RANGING BETWEEN ROUGHLY 1 AND 10 MS WHOSE PROGENITOR POPULATION IS STILL UNKNOWN. THOUSANDS OF FRBS ARE PRODUCED ISOTROPICALLY OVER THE ENTIRE SKY EACH DAY AND THEY HAVE RADIATION ENERGIES AT THE SOURCE THAT ARE ~10 BILLION TIMES LARGER THAN MOST RADIO PULSES FROM GALACTIC PULSARS. FRB EMISSION ARRIVES LATER AT LOWER RADIO FREQUENCIES DUE TO DISPERSIVE DELAYS FROM THE INTERVENING IONIZED MATERIAL. THE DISPERSIVE DELAY IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE DISPERSION MEASURE (DM) WHICH IS THE INTEGRATED COLUMN DENSITY OF FREE ELECTRONS BETWEEN THE SOURCE AND THE OBSERVER. THE DM IS OFTEN USED AS A ROUGH PROXY FOR DISTANCE SINCE THE EMISSION FROM MORE DISTANT SOURCES TYPICALLY TRAVELS THROUGH MORE INTERVENING MATERIAL. THE SOURCES OF FRBS ARE BELIEVED TO BE LOCATED AT EXTRAGALACTIC DISTANCES SINCE THEIR DMS EXCEED THE EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION FROM GALACTIC FREE ELECTRONS ALONG THE LINE OF SIGHT. THIS PROPOSAL WILL CARRY OUT A HIGH TIME RESOLUTION SEARCH FOR X-RAY BURSTS FROM LOCALIZED REPEATING FAST RADIO BURST (FRB) SOURCES IN THE SOFT X-RAY BAND (0.2-12 KEV) USING OBSERVATIONS WITH THE NEUTRON STAR INTERIOR COMPOSITION EXPLORER (NICER). THE SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THIS WORK IS TO DETECT SOFT X-RAY BURSTS FROM LOW DM REPEATING FRB SOURCES THAT ENTER INTO AN ACTIVE STATE.

$37,500FY2021National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

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