Measuring the Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Baryon Contents with Fast Radio Bursts

Over 80% of the cosmic baryon density is likely to be distributed in the diffuse, ≳10^4 K circumgalactic and intergalactic medium (CGM and IGM, respectively). We demonstrate that the dispersion measures (DMs) of samples of localized fast radio bursts (FRBs) can be used to measure the distribution of baryons between the CGM and IGM. We propose to separate the CGM and IGM contributions to FRB DMs by including redshift and mass measurements of intervening galaxies. Using simulated samples of FRB sight lines through intervening galaxy halos and an illustrative model for the CGM, and including realistic observational uncertainties, we show that small samples (O(10^1)–O(10^2)) of localized FRBs are sensitive to the presence of CGM gas. The fractions of baryons in the CGM and IGM can be accurately estimated with a few tens of FRBs at z < 1, with uncertainties of ~10% with N = 10 FRBs that decline as N^(−1/2). The characteristic radial density profiles of CGM halos may also be possible to constrain with larger FRB samples. The required samples of localized FRBs are expected to be assembled in the coming few years by instruments such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, the Deep Synoptic Array, MeerKAT, UTMOST-2D, and the Very Large Array