4,967 research outputs found
A common behavior in the late X-ray afterglow of energetic GRB-SN systems
The possibility to divide GRBs in different subclasses allow to understand
better the physics underlying their emission mechanisms and progenitors. The
induced gravitational collapse scenario proposes a binary progenitor to explain
the time-sequence in GRBs-SNe. We show the existence of a common behavior of
the late decay of the X-ray afterglow emission of this subclass of GRBs,
pointing to a common physical mechanism of their late emission, consistent with
the IGC picture.Comment: 3 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the Gamma-Ray Burst
Symposium 2012 - IAA-CSIC - Marbella, editors: Castro-Tirado, A. J.,
Gorosabel, J. and Park, I.
A white dwarf merger as progenitor of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61?
It has been recently proposed that massive fast-rotating highly-magnetized
white dwarfs could describe the observational properties of some of Soft
Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars (AXPs). Moreover, it has
also been shown that high-field magnetic (HFMWDs) can be the outcome of white
dwarf binary mergers. The products of these mergers consist of a hot central
white dwarf surrounded by a rapidly rotating disk. Here we show that the merger
of a double degenerate system can explain the characteristics of the peculiar
AXP 4U 0142+61. This scenario accounts for the observed infrared excess. We
also show that the observed properties of 4U 0142+6 are consistent with an
approximately 1.2 M_{\sun} white dwarf, remnant of the coalescence of an
original system made of two white dwarfs of masses 0.6\, M_{\sun} and 1.0\,
M_{\sun}. Finally, we infer a post-merging age kyr,
and a magnetic field G. Evidence for such a magnetic
field may come from the possible detection of the electron cyclotron absorption
feature observed between the and bands at Hz in the
spectrum of 4U 0142+61.Comment: to appear in ApJ Letter
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