1,981 research outputs found
Physical Mechanisms for the Variable Spin-down of SGR 1900+14
We consider the physical implications of the rapid spindown of Soft Gamma
Repeater 1900+14, and of the apparent "braking glitch", \Delta P/P = l x 10^-4,
that was concurrent with the Aug. 27th giant flare. A radiation-hydrodynamical
outflow associated with the flare could impart the required torque, but only if
the dipole magnetic field is stronger than ~ 10^14 G and the outflow lasts
longer and/or is more energetic than the observed X-ray flare. A positive
period increment is also a natural consequence of a gradual, plastic
deformation of the neutron star crust by an intense magnetic field, which
forces the neutron superfluid to rotate more slowly than the crust. Sudden
unpinning of the neutron vortex lines during the August 27th event would then
induce a glitch opposite in sign to those observed in young pulsars, but of a
much larger magnitude as a result of the slower rotation.
The change in the persistent X-ray lightcurve following the August 27 event
is ascribed to continued particle heating in the active region of that
outburst. The enhanced X-ray output can be powered by a steady current flowing
through the magnetosphere, induced by the twisting motion of the crust. The
long term rate of spindown appears to be accelerated with respect to a simple
magnetic dipole torque. Accelerated spindown of a seismically-active magnetar
will occur when its persistent output of Alfven waves and particles exceeds its
spindown luminosity. We suggest that SGRs experience some episodes of relative
inactivity, with diminished spindown rates, and that such inactive magnetars
are observed as Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs). The rapid reappearence of
persistent X-ray emission following August 27 flare gives evidence against
accretion-powered models.Comment: 24 pages, no figure
Hydrogen evolution from water using heteroatom substituted fluorene conjugated co-polymers
The photocatalytic performance of fluorene-type polymer photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water in the presence of a sacrificial hole scavenger is significantly improved by the incorporation of heteroatoms into the...</p
Timing Noise in SGR 1806-20
We have phase connected a sequence of RXTE PCA observations of SGR 1806-20
covering 178 days. We find a simple secular spin-down model does not adequately
fit the data. The period derivative varies gradually during the observations
between 8.1 and 11.7 * 10^-11 s/s (at its highest, ~40% larger than the long
term trend), while the average burst rate as seen with BATSE drops throughout
the time interval. The phase residuals give no compelling evidence for
periodicity, but more closely resemble timing noise as seen in radio pulsars.
The magnitude of the timing noise, however, is large relative to the noise
level typically found in radio pulsars. Combining these results with the noise
levels measured for some AXPs, we find all magnetar candidates have \Delta_8
values larger than those expected from a simple extrapolation of the
correlation found in radio pulsars. We find that the timing noise in SGR
1806-20 is greater than or equal to the levels found in some accreting systems
(e.g., Vela X-1, 4U 1538-52 and 4U 1626-67), but the spin-down of SGR 1806-20
has thus far maintained coherence over 6 years. Alternatively, an orbital model
with a period P_orb = 733 days provides a statistically acceptable fit to the
data. If the phase residuals are created by Doppler shifts from a
gravitationally bound companion, then the allowed parameter space for the mass
function (small) and orbital separation (large) rule out the possibility of
accretion from the companion sufficient to power the persistent emission from
the SGR.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Evolution of the magnetic field in magnetars
We use numerical MHD to look at the stability of a possible poloidal field in
neutron stars (Flowers & Ruderman 1977), and follow its unstable evolution,
which leads to the complete decay of the field. We then model a neutron star
after the formation of a solid crust of high conductivity. As the initial
magnetic field we use the stable `twisted torus' field which was the result of
our earlier work (Braithwaite & Nordlund 2005), since this field is likely to
exist in the interior of the star at the time of crust formation. We follow the
evolution of the field under the influence of diffusion, and find that large
stresses build up in the crust, which will presumably lead to cracking. We put
this forward as a model for outbursts in soft gamma repeaters.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, submitted to A&
Near-infrared follow-up to the May 2008 activation of SGR 1627-41
On 28 May 2008, the Swift satellite detected the first reactivation of SGR
1627-41 since its discovery in 1998.
Following this event we began an observing campaign in near infrared
wavelengths to search for a possible counterpart inside the error circle of
this SGR, which is expected to show flaring activity simultaneous to the high
energy flares or at least some variability as compared to the quiescent state.
For the follow-up we used the 0.6m REM robotic telescope at La Silla
Observatory, which allowed a fast response within 24 hours and, through
director discretionary time, the 8.2m Very Large Telescope at Paranal
Observatory. There, we observed with NACO to produce high angular resolution
imaging with the aid of adaptive optics.
These observations represent the fastest near infrared observations after an
activation of this SGR and the deepest and highest spatial resolution
observations of the Chandra error circle.
5 sources are detected in the immediate vicinity of the most precise X-ray
localisation of this source. For 4 of them we do not detect variability,
although the X-ray counterpart experimented a significant decay during our
observation period. The 5th source is only detected in one epoch, where we have
the best image quality, so no variability constrains can be imposed and remains
as the only plausible counterpart. We can impose a limit of Ks > 21.6
magnitudes to any other counterpart candidate one week after the onset of the
activity. Our adaptive optics imaging, with a resolution of 0.2" provides a
reference frame for subsequent studies of future periods of activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Relativistic models of magnetars: the twisted-torus magnetic field configuration
We find general relativistic solutions of equilibrium magnetic field
configurations in magnetars, extending previous results of Colaiuda et al.
(2008). Our method is based on the solution of the relativistic Grad-Shafranov
equation, to which Maxwell's equations can be reduced in some limit. We obtain
equilibrium solutions with the toroidal magnetic field component confined into
a finite region inside the star, and the poloidal component extending to the
exterior. These so-called twisted-torus configurations have been found to be
the final outcome of dynamical simulations in the framework of Newtonian
gravity, and appear to be more stable than other configurations. The solutions
include higher order multipoles, which are coupled to the dominant dipolar
field. We use arguments of minimal energy to constrain the ratio of the
toroidal to the poloidal field.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. Minor changes to match the version published on
MNRA
Statistical properties of SGR 1900+14 bursts
We study the statistics of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts, using a data
base of 187 events detected with BATSE and 837 events detected with RXTE PCA,
all from SGR 1900+14 during its 1998-1999 active phase. We find that the
fluence or energy distribution of bursts is consistent with a power law of
index 1.66, over 4 orders of magnitude. This scale-free distribution resembles
the Gutenberg-Richter Law for earthquakes, and gives evidence for
self-organized criticality in SGRs. The distribution of time intervals between
successive bursts from SGR 1900+14 is consistent with a log-normal
distribution. There is no correlation between burst intensity and the waiting
times till the next burst, but there is some evidence for a correlation between
burst intensity and the time elapsed since the previous burst. We also find a
correlation between the duration and the energy of the bursts, but with
significant scatter. In all these statistical properties, SGR bursts resemble
earthquakes and solar flares more closely than they resemble any known
accretion-powered or nuclear-powered phenomena. Thus our analysis lends support
to the hypothesis that the energy source for SGR bursts is internal to the
neutron star, and plausibly magnetic.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Discovery of a magnetar associated with the Soft Repeater SGR 1900+14
The soft-gamma repeater SGR 1900+14 became active again on June 1998 after a long period of quiescence; it remained at a low state of activity until August 1998, when it emitted a series of extraordinarily intense outbursts. We have observed the source with RXTE twice, during the onset of each active episode. We confirm the pulsations at the 5.16 s period reported earlier (Hurley et al. 1998b, Hurley et al. 1998 e) from SGR 1900+14. Here we report the detection of a secular spindown of the pulse period at an average rate of 1.1*10^{-10} s/s. In view of the strong similarities between SGRs, we attribute the spindown of SGR 1900+14 to magnetic dipole radiation, possibly accelerated by a quiescent flux, as in the case of SGR 1806-20 (Kouveliotou et al. 1998a). This allows an estimate of the pulsar dipolar magnetic field, which is 2-8*10^{14} G. Our results confirm that SGRs are magnetars
Magnetar Driven Bubbles and the Origin of Collimated Outflows in Gamma-ray Bursts
We model the interaction between the wind from a newly formed rapidly
rotating magnetar and the surrounding supernova shock and host star. The
dynamics is modeled using the two-dimensional, axisymmetric thin-shell
equations. In the first ~10-100 seconds after core collapse the magnetar
inflates a bubble of plasma and magnetic fields behind the supernova shock. The
bubble expands asymmetrically because of the pinching effect of the toroidal
magnetic field, just as in the analogous problem of the evolution of pulsar
wind nebulae. The degree of asymmetry depends on E_mag/E_tot. The correct value
of E_mag/E_tot is uncertain because of uncertainties in the conversion of
magnetic energy into kinetic energy at large radii in relativistic winds; we
argue, however, that bubbles inflated by newly formed magnetars are likely to
be significantly more magnetized than their pulsar counterparts. We show that
for a ratio of magnetic to total power supplied by the central magnetar
L_mag/L_tot ~ 0.1 the bubble expands relatively spherically. For L_mag/L_tot ~
0.3, however, most of the pressure in the bubble is exerted close to the
rotation axis, driving a collimated outflow out through the host star. This can
account for the collimation inferred from observations of long-duration
gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Outflows from magnetars become increasingly
magnetically dominated at late times, due to the decrease in neutrino-driven
mass loss as the young neutron star cools. We thus suggest that the
magnetar-driven bubble initially expands relatively spherically, enhancing the
energy of the associated supernova, while at late times it becomes
progressively more collimated, producing the GRB.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Unveiling Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters with INTEGRAL
Thanks to INTEGRAL's long exposures of the Galactic Plane, the two brightest
Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, have been monitored and
studied in detail for the first time at hard-X/soft gamma rays.
This has produced a wealth of new scientific results, which we will review
here. Since SGR 1806-20 was particularly active during the last two years, more
than 300 short bursts have been observed with INTEGRAL. and their
characteristics have been studied with unprecedented sensitivity in the 15-200
keV range. A hardness-intensity anticorrelation within the bursts has been
discovered and the overall Number-Intensity distribution of the bursts has been
determined. In addition, a particularly active state, during which ~100 bursts
were emitted in ~10 minutes, has been observed on October 5 2004, indicating
that the source activity was rapidly increasing. This eventually led to the
Giant Flare of December 27th 2004, for which a possible soft gamma-ray (>80
keV) early afterglow has been detected.
The deep observations allowed us to discover the persistent emission in hard
X-rays (20-150 keV) from 1806-20 and 1900+14, the latter being in a quiescent
state, and to directly compare the spectral characteristics of all Magnetars
(two SGRs and three Anomalous X-ray Pulsars) detected with INTEGRAL.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Presented at the conference "Isolated Neutron
Stars: from the Surface to the Interior", London, UK, 24-28 April 200
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