Backlighting the Universe with Fast Radio Bursts: An Anthology of Dispersion Measure Cross Correlations with Tracers of Large-scale Structure and Baryonic Matter
10 affiliations
- 1MC 249-17 California Institute of Technology
- 2University of Arizona
- 3California Institute of Technology
- 4University of Chicago
- 5Center for Astrophysics
- 6Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- 7University of California
- 8Universität Innsbruck
- 9University of Oxford
- 10Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA)
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) probe baryons permeating the cosmic web through their dispersion measures (DMs), which encode the integrated electron density along cosmological sight lines. Using 3455 unique FRB sources from CHIME/FRB with ∼15′ localizations, we present an anthology of DM correlations with tracers of large-scale structure and baryonic matter at redshifts z ≲ 1.5. We measured correlations with a vector signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2.4–5 with 10 probes, including galaxies (2.8), weak gravitational lensing (2.6), cosmic infrared background (4.0), cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing (3.3), the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect (3.8), X-ray emission tracing galaxy clusters (5.0) and superclusters (3.3), soft X-ray background (SXRB, 4.1), and radio continuum emission (3.0). These measurements reveal a consistent picture in which FRB sight lines intersecting overdense environments carry systematically larger DMs. Correlations with hot-gas tracers provide additional leverage on the strength of feedback, as they are strongly weighted toward the dense, bound gas. The measured amplitude of tSZ×DM and SXRB×DM correlations is consistent with theoretical predictions of baryon distribution from a DM– z relation-inferred model with moderate feedback at a ∼0.5 σ level. A weaker feedback scenario is disfavored at ∼3.5 σ by the SXRB×DM correlation under our adopted modeling assumptions. Taken together, these measurements constitute a quantitative multitracer foundation for a new era in which FRBs from next-generation facilities, such as BURSTT, CHORD, the Deep Synoptic Array, and the Square Kilometer Array, in harmony with other probes, will map the baryon content of the full extent of the cosmic web.
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BibTeX
@article{sharma2026backlighting,
title = {{Backlighting the Universe with Fast Radio Bursts: An Anthology of Dispersion Measure Cross Correlations with Tracers of Large-scale Structure and Baryonic Matter}},
author = {Kritti Sharma and Elisabeth Krause and Vikram Ravi and Dhayaa Anbajagane and Liam Connor and W. L. Kimmy Wu and Simone Ferraro and Sebastian Grandis and David Alonso and Yi-Kuan Chiang and Casey J. Law and Pranjal R. S. and Samuel McCarty and Shivam Pandey},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae9a79},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9a79},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Backlighting the Universe with Fast Radio Bursts: An Anthology of Dispersion Measure Cross Correlations with Tracers of Large-scale Structure and Baryonic Matter
AU - Kritti Sharma
AU - Elisabeth Krause
AU - Vikram Ravi
AU - Dhayaa Anbajagane
AU - Liam Connor
AU - W. L. Kimmy Wu
AU - Simone Ferraro
AU - Sebastian Grandis
AU - David Alonso
AU - Yi-Kuan Chiang
AU - Casey J. Law
AU - Pranjal R. S.
AU - Samuel McCarty
AU - Shivam Pandey
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ae9a79
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9a79
AB - Fast radio bursts (FRBs) probe baryons permeating the cosmic web through their dispersion measures (DMs), which encode the integrated electron density along cosmological sight lines. Using 3455 unique FRB sources from CHIME/FRB with ∼15′ localizations, we present an anthology of DM correlations with tracers of large-scale structure and baryonic matter at redshifts z ≲ 1.5. We measured correlations with a vector signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2.4–5 with 10 probes, including galaxies (2.8), weak gravitational lensing (2.6), cosmic infrared background (4.0), cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing (3.3), the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect (3.8), X-ray emission tracing galaxy clusters (5.0) and superclusters (3.3), soft X-ray background (SXRB, 4.1), and radio continuum emission (3.0). These measurements reveal a consistent picture in which FRB sight lines intersecting overdense environments carry systematically larger DMs. Correlations with hot-gas tracers provide additional leverage on the strength of feedback, as they are strongly weighted toward the dense, bound gas. The measured amplitude of tSZ×DM and SXRB×DM correlations is consistent with theoretical predictions of baryon distribution from a DM– z relation-inferred model with moderate feedback at a ∼0.5 σ level. A weaker feedback scenario is disfavored at ∼3.5 σ by the SXRB×DM correlation under our adopted modeling assumptions. Taken together, these measurements constitute a quantitative multitracer foundation for a new era in which FRBs from next-generation facilities, such as BURSTT, CHORD, the Deep Synoptic Array, and the Square Kilometer Array, in harmony with other probes, will map the baryon content of the full extent of the cosmic web.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -