Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense radio pulses with millisecond-duration and Jansky-level intensity from the sky. Currently, 17 non-repeating FRBs and 1 repeating FRB have been discovered. Most FRBs have high dispersion measures and high Galactic latitudes, thus are believed to be of extragalactic origin. For the only known repeating burst source, i.e. FRB 121102, 26 repeating events have been observed. A sub-arcsecond position accuracy has been obtained for this source and its host galaxy has been identified, with the redshift being determined as 0.19273 ± 0.00008. However, no counterparts have been identified for all the non-repeating FRBs till now, making these events even more enigmatic at this stage. Various mechanisms have been suggested for FRBs, such as merging binary compact stars, collisions of asteroids with neutron stars, collapses of massive white dwarfs or neutron stars, giant pulses from pulsars, flares from normal stars or magnetars or even active galactic nuclei, etc. Although still quite unclear in their nature, FRBs may provide valuable probes for the Universe and may be useful tools for studying the Einstein's Principle of Equivalence and for constraining the static mass of photons. In this article, the recent observational and theoretical progress in FRB studies is systematically reviewed. Firstly, a detailed description on the observational characteristics and progress is presented. Possible models of FRBs' progenitors are then introduced, followed by a brief discussion on the applications of FRBs in various astrophysical fields. A short prospect on future FRB studies is given at the end.%快速射电暴是近几年观测到的一种在射电波段短暂出现的高能天体物理爆发现象.它们的光变曲线通常表现为单个脉冲轮廓,持续时间一般为若干毫秒,大部分峰值流量密度可达到央斯基量级.对快速射电暴研究概况进行了评述,系统描述了快速射电暴的观测进展,介绍了已提出的快速射电暴前身星物理模型及快速射电暴在天体物理领域中的应用等,也对快速射电暴的未来研究进行了展望.
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