The Absence of Periodicity in Repeating FRB

Abstract

Popular Fast Radio Burst models involve rotating magnetized neutron stars, yet no rotational periodicities have been found. Small datasets exclude exact periodicity in FRB 121102. Recent observations of over 1500 bursts from each of FRB 121102 and FRB 20201124A also have not found periodicity. Periodograms of events with cosine-distributed random offsets as large as $\pm 0.6 P$ from a strict period $P$ would still reveal the underlying periodicity. The sensitivity of periodograms of long data series, such as bursts observed on multiple days, to slow frequency drifts is mitigated by considering individual observing sessions, and results are shown for FRB 121102. Models of repeating FRB without intrinsic periodicity are considered, as are models of apparently non-repeating FRB.