On the enhanced X-ray emission from SGR 1900+14 after the August 27th giant flare

We show that the giant flares of soft gamma ray repeaters (E similar to 10(44) erg) can push the inner regions of a fall-back disk out to larger radii by radiation pressure, while matter remains bound to the system for plausible parameters. The subsequent relaxation of this pushed-back matter can account for the observed enhanced X-ray emission after the August 27(th) giant flare of SGR 1900+14

On the Outbursts of Soft X-ray Transients

We suggest a new scenario to explain the outburst light curves of black hole soft X-ray transients together with the secondary maximum and the bump seen on their decay phases. Our explanations are based on the disk instability models considering the effect of X-ray irradiation. The scenario is consistent with the observed X-ray delays by a few days with respect to the optical rise for both the main outburst and the later maxima. We test our scenario by numerically solving the disk diffusion equation. The obtained model curve fits well to the observed X-ray outburst photon flux curve of the black hole soft X-ray transient GS/GRS 1124-68, a typical representative of the four BH SXTs with very similar light curves.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

X-ray and infrared enhancement of anomalous x-ray pulsar 1E 2259+586

The long-term ( 1.5 yr) X-ray enhancement and the accompanying infrared enhancement light curves of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 2259+586 following the major bursting epoch can be accounted for by the relaxation of a fallback disk that has been pushed back by a gamma-ray flare. The required burst energy estimated from the results of our model fits is low enough for such a burst to have remained below the detection limits. We find that an irradiated disk model with a low irradiation efficiency is in good agreement with both X-ray and infrared data. Nonirradiated disk models also give a good fit to the X-ray light curve, but are not consistent with the infrared data for the first week of the enhancement

Fallback disks, magnetars and other neutron stars

The presence of matter with angular momentum, in the form of a fallback disk around a young isolated neutron star will determine its evolution. This leads to an understanding of many properties of different classes of young neutron stars, in particular a natural explanation for the period clustering of AXPs, SGRs and XDINs. The spindown or spinup properties of a neutron star are determined by the dipole component of the magnetic field. The natural possibility that magnetars and other neutron stars may have different strengths of the dipole and higher multipole components of the magnetic field is now actually required by observations on the spindown rates of some magnetars. This talk gives a broad overview and some applications of the fallback disk model to particular neutron stars. Salient points are: (i) A fallback disk has already been observed around the AXP 4U 0142+61 some years ago. (ii) The low observed spindown rate of the SGR 0418+5729 provides direct evidence that the dipole component of the field is in the 1012G range. All properties of the SGR 0418+5729 at its present age can be explained by spindown under torques from a fallback disk. (iii) The anomalous braking index of PSR J1734-3333 can also be explained by the fallback disk model which gives the luminosity, period, period derivative and the period second derivative at the present age. (iv) These and all applications to a variety of other sources employ the same disk physics and evolution, differing only in the initial conditions of the disk

The Ineludible non-Gaussianity of the Primordial Black Hole Abundance

We study the formation of primordial black holes when they are generated by the collapse of large overdensities in the early universe. Since the density contrast is related to the comoving curvature perturbation by a nonlinear relation, the overdensity statistics is unavoidably non-Gaussian. We show that the abundance of primordial black holes at formation may not be captured by a perturbative approach which retains the first few cumulants of the non-Gaussian probability distribution. We provide two techniques to calculate the non-Gaussian abundance of primordial black holes at formation, one based on peak theory and the other on threshold statistics. Our results show that the unavoidable non-Gaussian nature of the inhomogeneities in the energy density makes it harder to generate PBHs. We provide simple (semi-)analytical expressions to calculate the non-Gaussian abundances of the primordial black holes and show that for both narrow and broad power spectra the gaussian case from threshold statistics is reproduced by increasing the amplitude of the power spectrum by a factor ${\cal O}(2\div 3)$.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, matching published versio

The anomalous x-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61: a neutron star with a gaseous fallback disk

The recent detection of the anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP) 4U 0142+61 in the mid infrared with the Spitzer Observatory (Wang, Chakrabarty & Kaplan 2006) constitutes the first instance for a disk around an AXP. We show, by analyzing earlier optical and near IR data together with the recent data, that the overall broad band data can be reproduced by a single irradiated and viscously heated disk model

On fallback disks and magnetars

The discovery of a disk around the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61, has rekindled the interest in fallback disks around magnetars. We briefly review the assumptions of fallback disk models and magnetar models. Earlier data in optical and near IR bands combined with new Spitzer data in the mid-IR range are compatible with a gas disk. Higher multipole fields with magnetar strengths together with a dipole field of 1012-1013 G on the neutron star surface are compatible with the presence of a disk around the neutron star. The possible presence and properties of a fallback disk after the supernova explosion is a likely initial condition to complement the initial rotation period and initial dipole field in determining the evolutionary paths and different types of isolated neutron stars