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Description
The discovery rate of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is increasing dramatically thanks to new radio facilities. Meanwhile, wide-field instruments such as the 47deg^2^ Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey the optical sky to study transient and variable sources. We present serendipitous ZTF observations of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) repeating source FRB180916.J0158+65 that was localized to a spiral galaxy 149Mpc away and is the first FRB suggesting periodic modulation in its activity. While 147 ZTF exposures corresponded to expected high-activity periods of this FRB, no single ZTF exposure was at the same time as a CHIME detection. No >3{sigma} optical source was found at the FRB location in 683 ZTF exposures, totaling 5.69hr of integration time. We combined ZTF upper limits and expected repetitions from FRB 180916.J0158+65 in a statistical framework using a Weibull distribution, agnostic of periodic modulation priors. The analysis yielded a constraint on the ratio between the optical and radio fluences of {eta}<~200, corresponding to an optical energy E_opt_<~3x10^46^erg for a fiducial 10Jy.ms FRB (90% confidence). A deeper (but less statistically robust) constraint of {eta}<~3 can be placed assuming a rate of r(>5Jy.ms)=1hr^-1^ and 1.2+/-1.1 FRB occurring during exposures taken in high-activity windows. The constraint can be improved with shorter per-image exposures and longer integration time, or observing FRBs at higher Galactic latitudes. This work demonstrated how current surveys can statistically constrain multiwavelength counterparts to FRBs even without deliberately scheduled simultaneous radio observation.
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