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Are the brightest one-off bursts the tail of one distribution or a separate class?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·Part of Are repeating and one-off sources one population or several?·3 answers·0·0 following
Three answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Three are still possible.

Why it matters

FRB 20250316A, the brightest nearby one-off, is a strong outlier in Catalog 2⁠[1]; if such bursts are a separate class, they may need a different engine.

Answers 3

None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible
Evidence: 1 for
Still possible
The brightest one-offs are a distinct physical class.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: 1 for
Still possible

History

  1. Zhang & Wei puts forward: the brightest bursts are the heavy tail of a single luminosity distribution.
  2. Zhang & Wei puts forward: the brightest one-offs are a distinct physical class.
  3. Zhang & Wei: the full peak-flux sample fits an unbounded Fréchet-type distribution.For: The brightest bursts are the heavy tail of a single luminosity distribution.
  4. Zhang & Wei: with three other outliers removed, the fluence distribution is bounded and FRB 20250316A far exceeds the…For: The brightest one-offs are a distinct physical class.
  5. Asked on this site
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