云大团队助力中国“天眼”，揭秘宇宙快速射电暴起源
Depolarized waves reveal the origin of fast radio bursts
快速射电暴是宇宙中最剧烈的射电爆发现象，其在几个毫秒内所释放的能量就与太阳持续几天产生的能量相当。尽管目前已发现几百个快速射电暴，其中有几十个表现出重复性的爆发活动，但由于观测上对其多样性缺乏统一表征，快速射电暴的物理起源仍然是个谜。
2022年3月18日，《科学》杂志发表了中国“天眼”在揭示宇宙快速射电暴起源方面取得的重大科学成果。研究人员利用中国的“天眼”、美国的GBT、加拿大的CHIME等射电望远镜，对快速射电暴的偏振信息进行了细致的测量，并从理论上对快速射电暴源所处环境给出了统一的系统性描述。该发现表明快速射电暴起源于复杂的磁化环境，如超新星遗迹等，对揭示快速射电暴这一神秘爆发现象的起源迈出了极为重要的一步。
新利18体育新杨元培副教授领衔的理论团队，在该重大观测发现的理论解释和模型构建方面发挥了主要作用，为该成果的取得做出了重要贡献。在《科学》杂志同期发表的对该成果的特约独立评论文章中，也对杨元培副教授等人提出的理论模型做了重点评述。
发表文章：Yi Feng, Di Li, Yuan-Pei Yang et al.,“Frequency Dependent Polarization of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts -- Implications for Their Origin”, 2022, Science, 375, 1266
报道链接：
Science：https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2353
Physics Today：https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.1.20220317a/full/
人民日报：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iehMFnV0PIk93fi-8Ydbfw
凤凰网：https://news.ifeng.com/c/8EUKRrKGqeQ?_share=weixin
科学网：https://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2022/3/475821.shtm
国家天文台：http://www.bao.ac.cn/xwzx/gdtpxw/202203/t20220318_6400046.html
图1. 不同射电望远镜探测到具有不同偏振度的快速射电暴。
Figure 1. Fast radio bursts with different polarization degrees detected by different radio telescopes.
图2. 快速射电暴在磁化湍流环境中传播造成的退偏振现象（图片引自《科学》杂志特评文章）。
Figure 2. Depolarization caused by an FRB propagating in the magnetized turbulent environment (cite:the special review article of Science).
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brightest millisecond-duration transients at radio bands. These radio bursts release as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun releases over several days, which make them fascinating in its own right. Although hundreds of FRB sources have been detected and dozens of them showed repeating behaviors, their physical origin is still mysterious due to the lack of unified characterization for the diversity in the observed properties of FRBs.
In a research article published in Science on Mar. 18, 2022, researchers analyzed the polarizations of active FRB repeaters using multi-band observations from FAST, GBT, CHIME, etc., and offered the unified systematic description of the environments near the FRB sources. This work indicated that FRBs likely originate in complex magnetized environments such as supernova remnants, and it is an important step toward understanding the environments of those mysterious bursts.
Associate Prof. Yuanpei Yang, from the South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, leaded the theory team of this Science paper, and is responsible for building and refining the model, which much enhanced the impact of the observational results. Along with the paper, Science also published an invited perspective by an independent expert, who largely focused on Prof. Yang’s interpretation.
Publication:Yi Feng, Di Li, Yuan-Pei Yang et al.,“Frequency Dependent Polarization of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts -- Implications for Their Origin”, 2022, Science, 375, 1266
News Links:
Science:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2353
Physics Today:https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.1.20220317a/full/
People's Daily:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iehMFnV0PIk93fi-8Ydbfw
Phoenix:https://news.ifeng.com/c/8EUKRrKGqeQ?_share=weixin
Sciencenet:https://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2022/3/475821.shtm
NAOC:http://www.bao.ac.cn/xwzx/gdtpxw/202203/t20220318_6400046.html
