J. I. Katz

The recent report of a period in the active repeating Fast Radio Burster 20201124A and measurement of its spindown rate place bounds on the solid angle of its emission on the basis of energetics. The bound depends on the (unknown) efficiency of conversion of rotational energy to coherent radio emission and implies a lower bound on the Lorentz factor of the radiating charges. Bursts may be emitted along the magnetic dipole axis, in repeaters aligned with the rotational axis and the line of sight but misaligned in apparent non-repeaters. This may explain the difficulty of finding periodicity in repeaters and the low duty cycle of apparent non-repeaters.