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Title: How do FRB sources arise in old stellar populations?
Plain: Some bursts come from a globular cluster (a ball of stars about $1e10\,\mathrm{years}$ old) or from galaxies that stopped forming stars long ago, where newborn magnetars should be absent.
Precise: FRB 20200120E lies in a globular cluster of M81 and other FRBs localize to quiescent galaxies. Determine the formation channel of the active sources there (accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs, white-dwarf or neutron-star mergers, accreting compact binaries) and its rate per unit stellar mass. Answer: a channel whose rate matches the observed fraction of FRBs in old hosts.
Settled by: Precise localizations of a statistical sample of FRBs in old environments, with the rate per stellar mass compared to channel predictions.
Kind: phenomenon
Answer type: identification
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: 2025: the repeating source FRB 20240209A was localized to the outskirts of a quiescent elliptical galaxy.
Posed since: 2022