A spatially resolved view of Fast Radio Burst host metallicities with Integral-field Spectroscopy

Abstract

Magnetar sources are the leading theory for Fast Radio Burst (FRB) progenitors. If magnetars are indeed the dominant sources, we may thus expect any metallicity preference for magnetar formation to be reflected in the FRB site in host galaxies. Here, we leverage Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy to spatially resolve gas-phase metallicity distribution in five FRB host galaxies: FRB 20240210A, FRB 20240312D, FRB 20250227A, FRB 20211127I, and FRB 20250316A, at z < 0.05, including the FRB site, with the O3N2 index. We observed the first four sources with the newly commissioned Large Lenslet Array Magellan Spectrograph (LLAMAS) IFU on the Magellan Telescopes and used archival Keck/KCWI data for FRB 20250316A. We find ISM metallicity variations of at least 0.3 dex within individual hosts for the majority of the sample, with median values spanning 12 + log(O/H) ≈ 8.5--8.7. At the burst sites, four have metallicities of 12 + log(O/H) ≈ 8.5--8.9, while the fifth has a metallicity below 8.5. These findings reveal substantial metallicity variations both among FRB host galaxies and within the local environments of the bursts. Consequently, our study shows that longslit-based global estimates of host galaxy metallicity do not always represent the true burst-site distributions. We therefore advocate for IFU follow-up of larger host samples to ultimately provide FRB-site-relevant observational constraints on metallicity preferences for FRB occurrence.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{simha2026spatially,
  title = {{A spatially resolved view of Fast Radio Burst host metallicities with Integral-field Spectroscopy}},
  author = {Sunil Simha and Hsiao-Wen Chen and Wen-Fai Fong and Sarah Hughes and Yuxin Dong and J. Xavier Prochaska and Nicolas Tejos and Tarraneh Eftekhari and Alexa C Gordon and Stuart D Ryder and Mawson W Sammons and Alice P Curtin and Victoria M Kaspi and Adam E Lanman and Calvin Leung and Kiyoshi W Masui and Aaron B Pearlman and Ryan M Shannon},
  howpublished = {HAL},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.07325},
  eprint = {2610.07325},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://hal.science/hal-05842240v1},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - A spatially resolved view of Fast Radio Burst host metallicities with Integral-field Spectroscopy
AU  - Sunil Simha
AU  - Hsiao-Wen Chen
AU  - Wen-Fai Fong
AU  - Sarah Hughes
AU  - Yuxin Dong
AU  - J. Xavier Prochaska
AU  - Nicolas Tejos
AU  - Tarraneh Eftekhari
AU  - Alexa C Gordon
AU  - Stuart D Ryder
AU  - Mawson W Sammons
AU  - Alice P Curtin
AU  - Victoria M Kaspi
AU  - Adam E Lanman
AU  - Calvin Leung
AU  - Kiyoshi W Masui
AU  - Aaron B Pearlman
AU  - Ryan M Shannon
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/05
PB  - HAL
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.07325
UR  - https://hal.science/hal-05842240v1
AB  - Magnetar sources are the leading theory for Fast Radio Burst (FRB) progenitors. If magnetars are indeed the dominant sources, we may thus expect any metallicity preference for magnetar formation to be reflected in the FRB site in host galaxies. Here, we leverage Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy to spatially resolve gas-phase metallicity distribution in five FRB host galaxies: FRB 20240210A, FRB 20240312D, FRB 20250227A, FRB 20211127I, and FRB 20250316A, at z < 0.05, including the FRB site, with the O3N2 index. We observed the first four sources with the newly commissioned Large Lenslet Array Magellan Spectrograph (LLAMAS) IFU on the Magellan Telescopes and used archival Keck/KCWI data for FRB 20250316A. We find ISM metallicity variations of at least 0.3 dex within individual hosts for the majority of the sample, with median values spanning 12 + log(O/H) ≈ 8.5--8.7. At the burst sites, four have metallicities of 12 + log(O/H) ≈ 8.5--8.9, while the fifth has a metallicity below 8.5. These findings reveal substantial metallicity variations both among FRB host galaxies and within the local environments of the bursts. Consequently, our study shows that longslit-based global estimates of host galaxy metallicity do not always represent the true burst-site distributions. We therefore advocate for IFU follow-up of larger host samples to ultimately provide FRB-site-relevant observational constraints on metallicity preferences for FRB occurrence.
ER  -

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