The Fast Radio Burst Luminosity Function and Death Line in the Low-Twist Magnetar Model

Understand

We explore the burst energy distribution of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in the low-twist magnetar model of Wadiasingh and Timokhin (2019).

• Motivated by the power-law fluence distributions of FRB 121102, we propose an elementary model for the FRB luminosity function of individual repeaters with an inversion protocol which directly relates the power-law distribution index of magnetar short burst fluences to that for FRBs.
• The protocol indicates the FRB energy scales virtually linearly with crust/field dislocation amplitude, if magnetar short bursts prevail in the magnetoelastic regime.
• Charge starvation in the magnetosphere during bursts (required in WT19) for individual repeaters implies the predicted burst fluence distribution is narrow, $\lesssim 3$ decades for yielding strains and oscillation frequencies feasible in magnetar crusts.