Localization and host galaxy identification of new fast radio bursts with MeerKAT

Journal article

Accurately localizing fast radio bursts (FRBs) is essential for understanding their birth environments and for their use as cosmological probes. Recent advances in radio interferometry, particularly with MeerKAT, have enabled the localization of individual bursts with arcsecond precision. In this work, we present the localization of 15 apparently non-repeating FRBs detected with MeerKAT. Two of the FRBs, discovered in 2022, were localized in 8 s images from the projects that MeerTRAP was commensal to, while eight were localized using the transient buffer (TB) pipeline, and another one through SeeKAT, all with arcsecond precision. Four additional FRBs lacked TB triggers and sufficient signal, limiting their localization only to arcminute precision. For eight of the FRBs in our sample, we identify host galaxies with greater than 90 per cent confidence, and one with 80 per cent confidence, while two FRBs have ambiguous associations. We measured spectroscopic redshifts for six host galaxies, ranging from 0.33 to 0.85, demonstrating MeerKAT’s sensitivity to high-redshift FRBs. We modelled the spectral energy distributions of host galaxies with sufficient photometric coverage to derive their stellar population and star formation properties. This work represents one of the largest uniform samples of well-localized distant FRBs to date, laying the groundwork for using MeerKAT FRBs as cosmological probes and understand how FRB hosts evolve at high redshift.

Authors: Pastor-Marazuela, I; Gordon, AC; Stappers, B; Khrykin, IS; Tejos, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 545
• Issue: 4
• Pages: staf2144
• Article number: staf2144
• Publication date: 2025-12-03
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-28
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf2144
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: methods: observational; techniques: interferometric; methods: data analysis; fast radio bursts