FRB 20250613A: Key to the Mysteries of Fast Radio Bursts and Plasma Physics ✛ ✦

Original abstract

as written by the authors arXiv:2607.00505

FRB20250613A is a repeating FRB discovered by the Australian SKA Pathfinder and localised to a low-metallicity dwarf galaxy at a redshift of $$z = 0.0987 \pm 0.0001$$. FRB 20250613A exhibits a plethora of exotic features that likely overlay the imprint of the circum-burst environment on some intrinsic features of the source. Here we perform a comprehensive analysis of bursts detected by ASKAP, MeerKAT, and the Murriyang Parkes radio telescopes. Bursts during the MeerKAT epoch show a large apparent variance in scattering on timescales of minutes to hours. Polarimetric analysis of the full sample shows spectral depolarisation with variability on timescales of days and changes in rotation measure of $$\sim$$ 300 rad m$$^{-2}$$ over days to months. This suggests a highly turbulent magneto-ionised environment. We find significant preference for separations of $$\sim$$6.8$$\pm$$0.8 ms in multi-component bursts that we suggest is likely intrinsic to the burst emission mechanism. Finally, we find that a subset of bursts exhibit variations in these propagation effects on burst components separated by just milliseconds, that are difficult to explain by changing sightlines, but plausibly due to non-linear plasma effects in the circum-burst environment caused by the high field strength of the FRB emission. These properties, which demand a nearby turbulent screen of material, are all consistent with the FRB progenitor being embedded in the dense stellar wind of a Be star binary companion, objects which are relatively plentiful in low-mass and low-metallicity galaxies like the FRB20250613A host.