  The phenomenon of fast radio bursts (FRBs) was discovered in 2007. These are
powerful (0.1-100 Jy) single radio pulses with durations of several
milliseconds, large dispersion measures, and record high brightness
temperatures suggesting coherent emission mechanism. As of time of writing, 32
FRBs were recorded. There is also one repeating source from which already
hundreds of bursts have been detected. The FRB rate is estimated to amount up
to several thousand per day over the sky, and their isotropic sky distribution
likely suggests a cosmological origin. Since the discovery, different
hypotheses on the possible FRB nature have been proposed, however up to now the
origin of these transient events remains obscure. The most prospective models
treat them as being related to a bursting emission from magnetars -- neutron
stars whose activity is due to their magnetic field dissipation, -- or as being
analogs of giant pulses observed from several radio pulsars . Future increase
in the statistics of the observed FRBs and an improvement upon the FRB
population characteristics will make possible to use them as a new tool to
probe the intergalactic medium and to test fundamental physical theories.
