Magnetar

About: Magnetar is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2905 publications have been published within this topic receiving 106806 citations.

The Giant Flare of 1998 August 27 from SGR 1900+14. I. An Interpretive Study of BeppoSAX and Ulysses Observations

Abstract: The giant flare of 1998 August 27 from SGR 1900+14 was extraordinary in many ways: it was the most intense flux of gamma rays ever detected from a source outside our solar system; it was longer than any previously detected burst from a soft gamma repeater (SGR) in our Galaxy by more than an order of magnitude; and it showed a remarkable four-peaked, periodic pattern in hard X-rays with the same rotation period that was found modulating soft X-rays from the star in quiescence. The event was detected by several gamma-ray experiments in space, including the Ulysses gamma-ray burst detector and the BeppoSAX Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor. These instruments operate in different energy ranges, and comparisons of their measurements reveal complex patterns of spectral evolution as the intensity varies. In this paper, we present a joint analysis of the BeppoSAX and Ulysses data and discuss some implications of these results for the SGRs. We also present newly analyzed Venera/SIGNE and ISEE-3 data on the 1979 March 5 giant flare from an SGR in the Large Magellanic Cloud (SGR 0526-66) and compare them with the August 27 event. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that giant flares are due to catastrophic magnetic instabilities in highly magnetized neutron stars, or magnetars. In particular, observations indicate that the initial hard spike involved a relativistic outflow of pairs and hard gamma rays, plausibly triggered by a large propagating fracture in the crust of a neutron star with a field exceeding 1014 G. Later stages in the light curve are accurately fitted by a model for emission from the envelope of a magnetically confined pair-photon fireball, anchored to the surface of the rotating star, which contracts as it emits X-rays and then evaporates completely in a finite time. The complex four-peaked shape of the light curve likely provides the most direct evidence known for a multipolar geometry in the magnetic field of a neutron star.

A test of the millisecond magnetar central engine model of GRBs with Swift data

Abstract: A rapidly spinning, strongly magnetized neutron star (magnetar) has been proposed as one possible candidate of the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We systematically analyze the Swift/XRT light curves of long GRBs detected before 2013 August, and characterize them into four categories based on how likely they may harbor a magnetar central engine: Gold, Silver, Aluminum, and Non-magnetar. We also independently analyze the data of short GRBs with a putative magnetar central engine. We then perform a statistical study of various properties of the magnetar samples and the non-magnetar sample, and investigate whether the data are consistent with the hypothesis that there exist two types of central engines. By deriving the physical parameters of the putative magnetars, we find that the observations of the Gold and Silver samples are generally consistent with the predictions of the magnetar model. For a reasonable beaming factor for long GRBs, the derived magnetar surface magnetic field $B_p$ and initial spin period $P_0$ fall into the reasonable range. Magnetar winds in short GRBs, on the other hand, are consistent with being isotropic. No GRB in the magnetar sample has a beam-corrected total energy exceeding the maximum energy budget defined by the initial spin energy of the magnetar, while some non-magnetar GRBs do violate such a limit. With beaming correction, on average the non-magnetar sample is more energetic and luminous than the magnetar samples. Our analysis hints that millisecond magnetars are likely operating in a good fraction, but probably not all, GRBs.

A Stellar Wind Bubble Coincident with the Anomalous X-Ray Pulsar 1E 1048.1–5937: Are Magnetars Formed from Massive Progenitors?

Abstract: We present 21 cm H I observations from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey of the field around the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937, a source whose X-ray properties imply that it is a highly magnetized neutron star (a "magnetar"). These data reveal an expanding hydrogen shell, GSH 288.3-0.5-28, centered on 1E 1048.1-5937, with a diameter of 35 × 23 pc (for a distance of 2.7 kpc) and an expansion velocity of ≈7.5 km s-1. We interpret GSH 288.3-0.5-28 as a wind bubble blown by a 30-40 M☉ star, but no such central star can be readily identified. We suggest that GSH 288.3-0.5-28 is the wind bubble blown by the massive progenitor of 1E 1048.1-5937 and consequently propose that magnetars originate from more massive progenitors than do radio pulsars. This may be evidence that the initial spin period of a neutron star is correlated with the mass of its progenitor and implies that the magnetar birthrate is only a small fraction of that for radio pulsars.

Propeller effect in action in the ultraluminous accreting magnetar M82 X-2

Abstract: We present here the first convincing observational manifestation of a magnetar-like magnetic field in an accreting neutron star in binary system - the first pulsating ultra-luminous X-ray source X-2 in the galaxy M82. Using the Chandra X-ray observatory data we show that the source exhibit the bimodal distribution of the luminosity with two well-defined peaks separated by a factor of 40. This behaviour can be interpreted as the action of the "propeller regime" of accretion. The onset of the propeller in a 1.37 s pulsar at luminosity of ~$10^{40}$ erg/s implies the dipole component of the neutron star magnetic field of ~$10^{14}$ G.