Journal ArticleDOI
A giant γ-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806–20
David Palmer,Scott Barthelmy,Neil Gehrels,R.M. Kippen,T. Cayton,Chryssa Kouveliotou,David Eichler,Ralph A. M. J. Wijers,P. M. Woods,Jonathan Granot,Y. E. Lyubarsky,Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz,L. M. Barbier,M. M. Chester,Jay Cummings,Jay Cummings,E. E. Fenimore,Mark H. Finger,Bryan Gaensler,D. Hullinger,Hans A. Krimm,Hans A. Krimm,C. B. Markwardt,C. B. Markwardt,J. A. Nousek,A. M. Parsons,Sandeep K. Patel,T. Sakamoto,T. Sakamoto,Goro Sato,Masaya Suzuki,Jack Tueller +31 more
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TLDR
In this article, the authors reported that SGR1806-20, a soft γ-ray repeater in Sagittarius, released a giant flare that has been called the brightest explosion ever recorded.Abstract:
On 27 December last year, SGR1806–20, a soft γ-ray repeater in Sagittarius, released a giant flare that has been called the brightest explosion ever recorded. SGRs are X-ray stars that sporadically emit low-energy γ-ray bursts. They are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars with observable emissions powered by magnetic dissipation. Five papers in this issue report initial and follow-up observations of this event. The data are remarkable: for instance in a fifth of a second, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years. Such power can be explained by catastrophic global crust failure and magnetic reconnection on a magnetar. Releasing a hundred times the energy of the only two previous SGR giant flares, this may have been a once-in-a-lifetime event for astronomers, and for the star itself. Two classes of rotating neutron stars—soft γ-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars—are magnetars1, whose X-ray emission is powered by a very strong magnetic field (B ≈ 1015 G). SGRs occasionally become ‘active’, producing many short X-ray bursts. Extremely rarely, an SGR emits a giant flare with a total energy about a thousand times higher than in a typical burst2,3,4. Here we report that SGR 1806–20 emitted a giant flare on 27 December 2004. The total (isotropic) flare energy is 2 × 1046 erg, which is about a hundred times higher than the other two previously observed giant flares. The energy release probably occurred during a catastrophic reconfiguration of the neutron star's magnetic field. If the event had occurred at a larger distance, but within 40 megaparsecs, it would have resembled a short, hard γ-ray burst, suggesting that flares from extragalactic SGRs may form a subclass of such bursts.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Gamma-ray bursts
TL;DR: In this article, the interplay between these observations and theoretical models of the prompt gamma-ray burst and its afterglow is reviewed, and a model of the burst's origin and mechanism is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Short-hard gamma-ray bursts
TL;DR: The theoretical and observational studies of short-hard gamma-ray bursts (SHBs) are reviewed in this article, along with new theoretical results that are presented here for the first time.
Journal ArticleDOI
The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets
Pawan Kumar,Bing Zhang +1 more
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered, can be found in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Relativistic Jets
Pawan Kumar,Bing Zhang +1 more
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in the understanding of gamma-ray bursts can be found in this article, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered.
Journal ArticleDOI
The strongest cosmic magnets: soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars
Abstract: Two classes of X-ray pulsars, the anomalous X-ray pulsars and the soft gamma-ray repeaters, have been recognized in the last decade as the most promising candidates for being magnetars: isolated neutron stars powered by magnetic energy. I review the observational properties of these objects, focussing on the most recent results, and their interpretation in the magnetar model. Alternative explanations, in particular those based on accretion from residual disks, are also considered. The possible relations between these sources and other classes of neutron stars and astrophysical objects are also discussed.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
Neil Gehrels,G. Chincarini,G. Chincarini,Paolo Giommi,Keith O. Mason,John A. Nousek,Alan A. Wells,Nicholas E. White,S. D. Barthelmy,David N. Burrows,L. R. Cominsky,Kevin Hurley,F. E. Marshall,Peter Mészáros,Peter W. A. Roming,Lorella Angelini,Lorella Angelini,L. M. Barbier,Tomaso Belloni,Sergio Campana,P. A. Caraveo,M. M. Chester,O. Citterio,T. L. Cline,Mark Cropper,Jay Cummings,Jay Cummings,A. J. Dean,Eric D. Feigelson,E. E. Fenimore,Dale A. Frail,A. S. Fruchter,Gordon P. Garmire,Keith C. Gendreau,Gabriele Ghisellini,Jochen Greiner,Joanne E. Hill,S. D. Hunsberger,Hans A. Krimm,Hans A. Krimm,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,Pawan Kumar,F. Lebrun,Nicole M. Lloyd-Ronning,Craig B. Markwardt,Craig B. Markwardt,Barbara J. Mattson,Barbara J. Mattson,Richard Mushotzky,Jay P. Norris,J. P. Osborne,Bohdan Paczynski,David Palmer,H.-S. Park,A. M. Parsons,J. A. Paul,Martin J. Rees,Christopher S. Reynolds,James E. Rhoads,T. P. Sasseen,Bradley E. Schaefer,A. Short,Alan P. Smale,Alan P. Smale,Ian Smith,Luigi Stella,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Tadayuki Takahashi,Makoto Tashiro,Leisa K. Townsley,Jack Tueller,Martin J. L. Turner,M. Vietri,Wolfgang Voges,Martin Ward,Richard Willingale,F. M. Zerbi,W. W. Zhang +77 more
TL;DR: The Swift mission as discussed by the authors is a multi-wavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy, which is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy and pioneers the way for future rapid-reaction and multiwavelength missions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Identification of two classes of gamma-ray bursts
Chryssa Kouveliotou,Charles A. Meegan,Gerald J. Fishman,Narayana P. Bhat,Michael S. Briggs,Thomas M. Koshut,William S. Paciesas,G. N. Pendleton +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the duration distribution of the gamma-ray bursts of the first BATSE catalog is studied and a bimodality in the distribution is found, which separates GRBs into two classes: short events (less than 2 s) and longer ones (more than 2 S).
Journal ArticleDOI
The Star Formation Law in Galactic Disks
TL;DR: In this article, the dependence of the massive star formation rate (SFR) on the density and dynamics of the interstellar gas was investigated in 15 galaxies and the relationship between the SFR and gas surface density was defined.
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