Chris Flynn

Dr. Chris Flynn


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

29Years (1998-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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17 January 2022 in The Astronomical Journal
Verified
Journal Article
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SBShivani Bhandari
Shivani Bhandari
KHKasper E. Heintz
Kasper E. Heintz
KAKshitij Aggarwal
Kshitij Aggarwal
LMLachlan Marnoch
Lachlan Marnoch
CDCherie K. Day
Cherie K. Day
BZBing Zhang
Bing Zhang
We present the localization and host galaxies of one repeating and two apparently nonrepeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). FRB 20180301A was detected and localized with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array to a star-forming galaxy at z = 0.3304. FRB20191228A and FRB20200906A were detected and localized by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder to host galaxies at z = 0.2430 and z = 0.3688, respectively. We combine these with 13 other well-localized FRBs in the literature, and analyze the host galaxy properties. We find no significant differences in the host properties of repeating and apparently nonrepeating FRBs. FRB hosts are moderately star forming, with masses slightly offset from the star-forming main sequence. Star formation and low-ionization nuclear emission-line region emission are major sources of ionization in FRB host galaxies, with the former dominant in repeating FRB hosts. FRB hosts do not track stellar mass and star formation as seen in field galaxies (more than 95% confidence). FRBs are rare in massive red galaxies, suggesting that progenitor formation channels are not solely dominated by delayed channels which lag star formation by gigayears. The global properties of FRB hosts are indistinguishable from core-collapse supernovae and short gamma-ray bursts hosts, and the spatial offset (from galaxy centers) of FRBs is mostly inconsistent with that of the Galactic neutron star population (95% confidence). The spatial offsets of FRBs (normalized to the galaxy effective radius) also differ from those of globular clusters in late- and early-type galaxies with 95% confidence.

1 June 2020 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
SBShivani Bhandari
Shivani Bhandari
ESElaine M. Sadler
Elaine M. Sadler
JPJason Prochaska
Jason Prochaska
SSSunil Simha
Sunil Simha
SRStuart D. Ryder
Stuart D. Ryder
CPChris Phillips
Chris Phillips
The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope has started to localize fast radio bursts (FRBs) to arcsecond accuracy from the detection of a single pulse, allowing their host galaxies to be reliably identified. We discuss the global properties of the host galaxies of the first four FRBs localized by ASKAP, which lie in the redshift range 0.11 < z < 0.48. All four are massive galaxies (log(M */M ⊙) ∼ 9.4–10.4) with modest star formation rates of up to 2 M ⊙ yr−1—very different to the host galaxy of the first repeating FRB 121102, which is a dwarf galaxy with a high specific star formation rate. The FRBs localized by ASKAP typically lie in the outskirts of their host galaxies, which appears to rule out FRB progenitor models that invoke active galactic nuclei or free-floating cosmic strings. The stellar population seen in these host galaxies also disfavors models in which all FRBs arise from young magnetars produced by superluminous supernovae, as proposed for the progenitor of FRB 121102. A range of other progenitor models (including compact-object mergers and magnetars arising from normal core-collapse supernovae) remain plausible.

27 November 2023 in The Astrophysical Journal
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Journal Article
Open access
DSD. A. Smith
D. A. Smith
SAS. Abdollahi
S. Abdollahi
MAM. Ajello
M. Ajello
MBM. Bailes
M. Bailes
LBL. Baldini
L. Baldini
WZW. Zhu
W. Zhu
We present 294 pulsars found in GeV data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Another 33 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) discovered in deep radio searches of LAT sources will likely reveal pulsations once phase-connected rotation ephemerides are achieved. A further dozen optical and/or X-ray binary systems colocated with LAT sources also likely harbor gamma-ray MSPs. This catalog thus reports roughly 340 gamma-ray pulsars and candidates, 10% of all known pulsars, compared to ≤11 known before Fermi. Half of the gamma-ray pulsars are young. Of these, the half that are undetected in radio have a broader Galactic latitude distribution than the young radio-loud pulsars. The others are MSPs, with six undetected in radio. Overall, ≥236 are bright enough above 50 MeV to fit the pulse profile, the energy spectrum, or both. For the common two-peaked profiles, the gamma-ray peak closest to the magnetic pole crossing generally has a softer spectrum. The spectral energy distributions tend to narrow as the spindown power E ̇ decreases to its observed minimum near 1033 erg s−1, approaching the shape for synchrotron radiation from monoenergetic electrons. We calculate gamma-ray luminosities when distances are available. Our all-sky gamma-ray sensitivity map is useful for population syntheses. The electronic catalog version provides gamma-ray pulsar ephemerides, properties, and fit results to guide and be compared with modeling results.

17 December 2019 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Journal Article
Closed access
PKPravir Kumar
Pravir Kumar
RSR. M. Shannon
R. M. Shannon
SOStefan Osłowski
Stefan Osłowski
HQHao Qiu
Hao Qiu
SBShivani Bhandari
Shivani Bhandari
RSRenée Spiewak
Renée Spiewak
We report the detection of repeat bursts from the source of FRB 171019, one of the brightest fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) fly’s eye survey. Two bursts from the source were detected with the Green Bank Telescope in observations centered at 820 MHz. The repetitions are a factor of ∼590 fainter than the ASKAP-discovered burst. All three bursts from this source show no evidence of scattering and have consistent pulse widths. The pulse spectra show modulation that could be evidence for either steep spectra or patchy emission. The two repetitions were the only ones found in an observing campaign for this FRB totaling 1000 hr, which also included ASKAP and the 64 m Parkes radio telescope, over a range of frequencies (720–2000 MHz) at epochs spanning two years. The inferred scaling of repetition rate with fluence of this source agrees with the other repeating source, FRB 121102. The detection of faint pulses from FRB 171019 shows that at least some FRBs selected from bright samples will repeat if follow-up observations are conducted with more sensitive telescopes.

1 August 2022 in The Astrophysical Journal
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Journal Article
Open access
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RAR. Abbott
R. Abbott
HAH. Abe
H. Abe
FAF. Acernese
F. Acernese
KAKendall Ackley
Kendall Ackley
NANaresh Adhikari
Naresh Adhikari
PWP. Weltevrede
P. Weltevrede
We present a targeted search for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from 236 pulsars using data from the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo (O3) combined with data from the second observing run (O2). Searches were for emission from the l = m = 2 mass quadrupole mode with a frequency at only twice the pulsar rotation frequency (single harmonic) and the l = 2, m = 1, 2 modes with a frequency of both once and twice the rotation frequency (dual harmonic). No evidence of GWs was found, so we present 95% credible upper limits on the strain amplitudes h 0 for the single-harmonic search along with limits on the pulsars’ mass quadrupole moments Q 22 and ellipticities ε. Of the pulsars studied, 23 have strain amplitudes that are lower than the limits calculated from their electromagnetically measured spin-down rates. These pulsars include the millisecond pulsars J0437−4715 and J0711−6830, which have spin-down ratios of 0.87 and 0.57, respectively. For nine pulsars, their spin-down limits have been surpassed for the first time. For the Crab and Vela pulsars, our limits are factors of ∼100 and ∼20 more constraining than their spin-down limits, respectively. For the dual-harmonic searches, new limits are placed on the strain amplitudes C 21 and C 22. For 23 pulsars, we also present limits on the emission amplitude assuming dipole radiation as predicted by Brans-Dicke theory.

5 November 2020 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
PKPravir Kumar
Pravir Kumar
RSR M Shannon
R M Shannon
CFChris Flynn
Chris Flynn
SOS Osłowski
S Osłowski
SBShivani Bhandari
Shivani Bhandari
NTN Thyagarajan
N Thyagarajan
The fast radio burst (FRB) population is observationally divided into sources that have been observed to repeat and those that have not. There is tentative evidence that the bursts from repeating sources have different properties than the non-repeating ones. In order to determine the occurrence rate of repeating sources and characterize the nature of repeat emission, we have been conducting sensitive searches for repetitions from bursts detected with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) with the 64-m Parkes radio telescope, using the recently commissioned Ultra-wideband Low (UWL) receiver system, over a band spanning 0.7–4.0 GHz. We report the detection of a repeat burst from the source of FRB 20190711A. The detected burst is 1 ms wide and has a bandwidth of just 65 MHz. We find no evidence of any emission in the remaining part of the 3.3 GHz UWL band. While the emission bandwidths of the ASKAP and UWL bursts show ν−4 scaling consistent with a propagation effect, the spectral occupancy is inconsistent with diffractive scintillation. This detection rules out models predicting broad-band emission from the FRB 20190711A source and puts stringent constraints on the emission mechanism. The low spectral occupancy highlights the importance of sub-banded search methods in detecting FRBs.