Can X-ray emission powered by a spinning-down magnetar explain some gamma-ray burst light-curve features?
N. Lyons,P. T. O'Brien,Bing Zhang,Richard Willingale,Eleonora Troja,Eleonora Troja,Eleonora Troja,R. L. C. Starling +7 more
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In this article, the authors used the X-ray light curves of all gamma-ray bursts observed by the Swift satellite to identify a subset of bursts which have a feature in their light curves which they call an internal plateau, which may be powered by a magnetar.Abstract:
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to be produced by the core-collapse of a rapidly rotating massive star. This event generates a highly relativistic jet and prompt gamma-ray and X-ray emission arises from internal shocks in the jet or magnetized outflows. If the stellar core does not immediately collapse to a black hole, it may form an unstable, highly magnetized millisecond pulsar or magnetar. As it spins down, the magnetar would inject energy into the jet causing a distinctive bump in the GRB light curve where the emission becomes fairly constant followed by a steep decay when the magnetar collapses. We assume that the collapse of a massive star to a magnetar can launch the initial jet. By automatically fitting the X-ray light curves of all GRBs observed by the Swift satellite, we identified a subset of bursts which have a feature in their light curves which we call an internal plateau – unusually constant emission followed by a steep decay – which may be powered by a magnetar. We use the duration and luminosity of this internal plateau to place limits on the magnetar spin period and magnetic field strength, and find that they are consistent with the most extreme predicted values for magnetars.read more
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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.
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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.
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The protomagnetar model for gamma-ray bursts
TL;DR: In this paper, a self-consistent model that directly connects the properties of the central engine to the observed prompt emission was proposed, which predicts a relatively constant 'Band' spectral peak energy E peak with time during the gamma-ray burst.
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Signatures of magnetar central engines in short GRB light curves
TL;DR: In this paper, it is predicted that the remnant of neutron star-neutron star mergers may not collapse immediately to a black hole (or even collapse at all), forming instead an unstable millisecond pulsar (magnetar) which powers a plateau phase in the X-ray light curve.
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Magnetars: the physics behind observations. A review.
TL;DR: A comprehensive overview of magnetar research, in which the observational results are discussed in the light of the most up-to-date theoretical models and their implications address the more fundamental issue of how physics in strong magnetic fields can be constrained by the observations of these unique sources.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Phil Evans,A. P. Beardmore,K. L. Page,J. P. Osborne,P. T. O'Brien,Richard Willingale,R. L. C. Starling,David N. Burrows,Olivier Godet,L. Vetere,Judith Racusin,M. R. Goad,Klaas Wiersema,Lorella Angelini,Milvia Capalbi,G. Chincarini,G. Chincarini,Neil Gehrels,J. A. Kennea,Raffaella Margutti,Raffaella Margutti,D. C. Morris,D. C. Morris,C. J. Mountford,C. Pagani,M. Perri,P. Romano,Nial R. Tanvir +27 more
TL;DR: A homogeneous X-rays analysis of all 318 gamma-ray bursts detected by the X-ray telescope (XRT) on the Swift satellite up to 2008 July 23 is presented; this represents the largest sample ofX-ray GRB data published to date.
Journal ArticleDOI
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Martin J. Rees,Peter Mészáros +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a mechanism for cosmological bursts that requires less extreme assumptions (in respect of Gamma-values, freedom from baryonic contamination, etc.) than earlier proposals.
Journal ArticleDOI
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