The Nonhomogeneous Poisson Process for Fast Radio Burst Rates

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) for modeling the rate of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and other infrequently observed astronomical events. The NHPP, well-known in statistics, can model the dependence of the rate on both astronomical features and the details of an observing campaign. This is particularly helpful for rare events like FRBs because the NHPP can combine information across surveys, making the most of all available information. The goal of the paper is two-fold. First, it is intended to be a tutorial on the use of the NHPP. Second, we build an NHPP model that incorporates beam patterns and a power-law flux distribution for the rate of FRBs. Using information from 12 surveys including 15 detections, we find an all-sky FRB rate of 587 events per sky per day above a flux of 1 Jy (95% CI: 272, 924) and a flux power-law index of (95% CI: 0.57, 1.25). Our rate is lower than other published rates, but consistent with the rate given in Champion et al.