Burst properties of the highly active FRB 20201124A using uGMRT

We report the observations of the highly active FRB 20201124A with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 550-750~MHz. These observations in the incoherent array mode simultaneously provided an arcsecond localization of bursts from FRB 20201124A, the discovery of persistent radio emission associated with the host galaxy, and the detection of 48 bursts. Using the brightest burst in the sample ($F= 108~{\rm Jy~ms}$) we find a structure-maximizing dispersion measure of $410.8 \pm 0.5~{\rm pc~cm}^{-3}$. We find that our observations are complete down to a fluence level of $10~{\rm Jy~ms}$, above which the cumulative burst rate scales as a power-law $R(>\!F) = 10~{\rm hr}^{-1} \left(F/10\,\mathrm{Jy~ms}\right)^{\gamma}$ with $\gamma = -1.2 \pm 0.2$. Below $10~{\rm Jy~ms}$, we estimate that we miss $\gtrsim$ 80% of the bursts down to $1~{\rm Jy~ms}$. However, this fainter burst population will be accessible with future observations using the more sensitive phased array mode. We find that the bursts are on an average wider than those reported for other repeating FRBs. We find that the waiting time between bursts is well approximated by an exponential distribution during our observations. We searched for periodicities using both a standard Fourier domain search as well as a search using the Fast Folding Algorithm, but found no significant candidates. We measure bulk spectro-temporal drift rates between $-0.75$ and $-20~{\rm MHz~ms}^{-1}$. Finally, we use the brightest burst to set an upper limit to the scattering time of 13.6~ms at 550~MHz. The localization of FRB 20201124A adds strength to the proof-of-concept method described in our earlier work and serves as a potential model for future localizations and follow-up of repeating FRBs with the uGMRT.