A Local Universe Host for the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 20181030A

We report on the host association of FRB 20181030A, a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with a low dispersion measure (103.5 pc cm−3) discovered by the CHIME/FRB Collaboration et al. Using baseband voltage data saved for its repeat bursts, we localize the FRB to a sky area of 5.3 arcmin2 (90% confidence). Within the FRB localization region, we identify NGC 3252 as the most promising host with an estimated chance-coincidence probability <2.5 × 10−3. Moreover, we do not find any other galaxy with Mr < −15 AB mag within the localization region to the maximum estimated FRB redshift of 0.05. This rules out a dwarf host 5 times less luminous than any FRB host discovered to date. NGC 3252 is a star-forming spiral galaxy and at a distance of ≈20 Mpc, it is one of the closest FRB hosts discovered thus far. From our archival radio data search, we estimate a 3σ upper limit on the luminosity of a persistent compact radio source (source size < 0.3 kpc at 20 Mpc) at 3 GHz to be 2 × 1026 erg s−1 Hz−1, at least 1500 times smaller than that of the FRB 20121102A persistent radio source. We also argue that a population of young millisecond magnetars alone cannot explain the observed volumetric rate of repeating FRBs. Finally, FRB 20181030A is a promising source for constraining FRB emission models due to its proximity and we strongly encourage its multi-wavelength follow-up.