A 4200-hour HyperFlash and ÉCLAT campaign on the hyperactive FRB 20240114A: constraining energetics with the most brilliant bursts
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Hyperactive repeaters provide a unique window into the evolving environments and energy budgets of fast radio burst (FRB) sources, though they may not be representative of the FRB population in general. High-cadence observations are key to capturing the rarest and most energetic bursts, which occur only once per hundreds to thousands of hours. Here we present an unprecedented 4, 200-hour observing campaign targeting FRB 20240114A as part of the HyperFlash and ÉCLAT FRB monitoring programs. Over 806 days, we detected 178 high-energy (∼1040 − 42 erg) bursts with HyperFlash, which together amount to 4.4 × 1042 erg of released radio energy (assuming isotropic emission and 1-GHz emission bandwidth). The cumulative energy of the HyperFlash bursts is about twice that of ∼11, 000 lower-energy bursts detected with FAST, emphasising the significant role that the highest-energy bursts play in depleting the central engine’s stored energy. In fact, the single most brilliant burst from our sample, which we term the STROOP, contributes roughly 1/3 of all the energy we measure, and is at the maximum energy seen in studies of both repeating and apparently one-off FRBs alike. We also find a break in the burst energy distribution at ∼2 × 1040 erg and a linear dispersion measure (DM) increase of +0.96 ± 0.06 pc cm−3 over a period of 318 days. We discuss these findings in the context of a magnetar source model and highlight comparisons with the energetics of intermediate and giant X-ray/γ-ray flares from Galactic sources.
Institutions: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of Oxford, Trottier Space Institute at McGill, McGill University, Université d'Orléans, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Observatoire de Paris, Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Astronomy and Space
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,046
Funders: McGill University, European Commission, Curtin University of Technology, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Vetenskapsrådet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika w Toruniu, ASTRON, Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
OpenAlex ID: W7161729945
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