Untangling the Cosmic Web: VLT/MUSE Observations of FRB Host Galaxy 180924

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are primarily one-off pulses of highly energetic, transient radio waves of extragalactic, but otherwise unknown, origin. While FRB progenitor models are hotly debated, the effect of the intervening baryonic matter on the FRB Dispersion Measure (DM) is well understood. Thanks to recent FRB surveys such as CRAFT/ASKAP that provide sub-arcsecond localization of FRB signals, we are able to confidently identify FRB host galaxies and therefore to estimate the constituent contributions to the total measured FRB DM. To this end, we present VLT/MUSE observations of an FRB Host Galaxy 180924 (HG 180924) at redshift z = 0.3214. We investigate the star formation rate (SFR), metallicity, and kinematics of HG 180924, paying particular attention to the area surrounding FRB 180924. Future work involves deriving the host galaxy’s DM and providing constraints on the cosmic baryon density along this line of sight. This work is part of the Fast & Fortunate FRB Follow-up collaboration: https://sites.google.com/ucolick.org/f-4. This project was supported in part by the NSF REU grant AST-1757321 and by the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.