Seminar by Matthew Lundy, McGill
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) continue to be one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries in modern astronomy. Identifying the progenitors of FRBs holds the potential to not only enhance our understanding of the environments surrounding compact objects but also to enable their use as valuable cosmological probes. A promising approach to investigating these enigmatic sources involves the search for multi-wavelength counterparts to FRBs. While numerous upper limits have been established across various wavelengths and messengers, from neutrinos to gamma-rays, the use of high-time-resolution instruments is crucial for detecting and characterizing potential extremely rapid transients. VERITAS, with its unique capabilities, is well-suited to search for both high-energy (>100 GeV) and rapid optical (B-band, 1 kHz) counterparts associated with FRBs. In this presentation, we will discuss our comprehensive studies of repeating FRBs, which provide the most stringent constraints to date in both optical and very-high-energy regimes. Additionally, we will present recent simultaneous observations of a non-repeating FRB source. We will contextualize these findings and outline future upgrades to the VERITAS optical backend, which are expected to enable some of the most sensitive searches for rapid optical transients in the sky.
Host: Kaya Mori