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The strongest cosmic magnets: soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

Sandro Mereghetti
- 08 Jul 2008 - 
- Vol. 15, Iss: 4, pp 225-287
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.

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Citations
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Photonic processes in Born–Infeld theory

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the processes of photon-photon scattering and photon splitting in a magnetic field in Born-Infeld theory, where the terms from the tree-level Born-infeld Lagrangian with the usual one-loop QED contributions were approximated by the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangians, including also the interference terms.
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The Dipole Magnetic Field and Spin-down Evolutions of The High Braking Index Pulsar PSR J1640-4631

TL;DR: In this article, the authors interpreted the high braking index of PSR J1640$-$4631 with a combination of the magneto-dipole radiation and dipole magnetic field decay models.
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An optical counterpart candidate for the isolated neutron star RBS 1774

TL;DR: In this article, the authors performed deep imaging with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the field of the XDINS RBS 1774 (1RXS J214303.7 + 065419) and provided the very first detection of a candidate optical counterpart in the B band.
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Non-detection in a fermi/lat observation of axp 4u 0142+61: magnetars?

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed that Fermi/LAT observations may distinguish between the magnetar model and the accretion model for anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs).
References
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Book

Compact Stellar X-ray Sources

TL;DR: A decade of X-ray sources and their evolution is described in this paper, with a focus on the formation and evolution of super-soft sources and the formation of compact stellar sources.
Journal ArticleDOI

Formation of very strongly magnetized neutron stars - Implications for gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that a convective dynamo can also generate a very strong dipole field after the merger of a neutron star binary, but only if the merged star survives for as long as about 10-100 ms.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Soft Gamma Repeaters as Very Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars. II. Quiescent Neutrino, X-Ray, and Alfvén Wave Emission

TL;DR: In this article, the decay rate of the core field is a very strong function of temperature and therefore of the magnetic flux density, which is not present in the decay of the weaker fields associated with ordinary radio pulsars.
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