Constraining Near-simultaneous Radio Emission from Short Gamma-Ray Bursts Using CHIME/FRB

Abstract

We use the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Fast Radio Burst (FRB) Project to search for FRBs that are temporally and spatially coincident with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) occurring between 2018 July 7 and 2023 August 3. We do not find any temporal (within 1 week) and spatial (within overlapping 3σ localization regions) coincidences between any CHIME/FRB candidates and all GRBs with 1σ localization uncertainties <1°. As such, we use CHIME/FRB to constrain the possible FRB-like radio emission for 27 short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) that were within 17° of CHIME/FRB’s meridian at a point either 6 hr prior up to 12 hr after the high-energy emission. Two SGRBs, GRB 210909A and GRB 230208A, were above the horizon at CHIME at the time of their high-energy emission and we place some of the first constraints on simultaneous FRB-like radio emission from SGRBs. While neither of these two SGRBs have known redshifts, we construct a redshift range for each GRB based on their high-energy fluence and a derived SGRB energy distribution. For GRB 210909A, this redshift range corresponds to z = [0.009, 1.64] with a mean of z = 0.13. Thus, for GRB 210909A, we constrain the radio luminosity at the time of the high-energy emission to L < 2 × 1046 erg s−1, L < 5 × 1044 erg s−1, and L < 3 × 1042 erg s−1 assuming redshifts of z = 0.85, z = 0.16, and z = 0.013, respectively. We compare these constraints with the predicted simultaneous radio luminosities from different compact object merger models.