Radiation Forces Constrain the FRB Mechanism

Understand

We provide constraints on Fast Radio Burst (FRB) models by careful considerations of radiation forces associated with these powerful transients.

• We find that the induced-Compton scatterings of the coherent radiation by electrons/positrons accelerate particles to very large Lorentz factors (LF) in and around the source of this radiation.
• This severely restricts those models for FRBs that invoke relativistic shocks and maser type instabilities at distances less than about $10^{13}$ cm of the neutron star.
• Radiation traveling upstream, in these models, forces particles to move away from the shock with a LF larger than the LF of the shock front.