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Abstract:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are amongst the most energetic transients in
our Universe, but despite several plausible models, their origin
remains a mystery. In the absence of multi-wavelength counterparts to
extragalactic FRBs, analyses of their host galaxy environments are
presently the most informative path to identifying their progenitor
systems. Thanks to recent advances using the Australian Square
Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope we can now
routinely localise FRBs to the galaxies they originate form, and in
some cases even pinpoint the burst to a region within the galaxy. In
addition, localising FRBs to their host galaxies allows us to use them
as probes to trace the ionised gas in galaxy haloes, large-scale
structure and the inter-galactic medium. In this talk, I will briefly
review our current understanding of the FRB phenomena, highlighting
the role of FRB searches and localisation with ASKAP.
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