Are Fast Radio Bursts Produced By Large Glitches Of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars?

Shlomo Dado, Arnon Dar

Published 2020-07-16Version 1

Starquakes and internal phase transitions within anomalous x-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft $\gamma$-ray repeaters (SGRs) can produce mini contractions and pulsar glitches. Shocks break out from their surface following such contractions produce thermal x-ray/$\gamma$-ray bursts. Highly relativistic dipolar $e^+e^-$ bunches launched from the pulsar polar caps emit fast radio bursts (FRBs) of narrowly beamed coherent curvature radiation, visible if it points in the direction of Earth. Although these surface x-ray/$\gamma$-ray bursts are isotropic and many orders of magnitude more energetic than the FRBs, they are detectable by the current all sky x-ray and $\gamma$-ray monitors only from our galaxy and nearby galaxies.