A UNIFIED MODEL OF THE MAGNETAR AND RADIO PULSAR BURSTING PHENOMENOLOGY

By R. Perna, José A. Pons. 2011

135 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are young neutron stars (NSs) characterized by high X-ray quiescent luminosities, outbursts, and, in the case of SGRs, sporadic giant flares. They are believed to be powered by ultra-strong magnetic fields (hence dubbed magnetars). The diversity of their observed behaviors is however not understood and made even more puzzling by the discovery of magnetar-like bursts from “low-field” pulsars. Here, we perform long-term two-dimensional simulations that follow the evolution of magnetic stresses in the crust; these, together with recent calculations of the breaking stress of the NS crust, allow us to establish when starquakes occur. For the first time, we provide a quantitative estimate of the burst energetics, event rate, and location on the NS surface, which bear a direct relevance for the interpretation of the overall magnetar phenomenology. Typically, an “SGR-like” object tends to be more active than an “AXP-like” object or a “high-B radio pulsar,” but there is no fundamental separation among what constitutes the apparent different classes. Among the key elements that create the variety of observed phenomena, age is more important than a small variation in magnetic field strength. We find that outbursts can also be produced in old, lower-field pulsars (B∼ a few ×1012 G), but those events are much less frequent than in young, high-field magnetars.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/42c29e60f6238cc33e835aa9046942e6eb903e25

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. B. Metzger
2. B. Margalit
3. A. Beloborodov
4. Bing Zhang
5. José A. Pons
6. L. Sironi
7. D. Page
8. R. Perna

In Geophysics

1. José A. Pons
2. D. Page
3. B. Metzger
4. A. Beloborodov
5. D. Aguilera
6. L. Sironi
7. A. Potekhin
8. B. Margalit

Citations in the corpus

• NuSTAR DISCOVERY OF A 3.76 s TRANSIENT MAGNETAR NEAR SAGITTARIUS A* (2013, methodology): “This fact, and the detection of a magnetar-like outburst from one high-B pulsar (Gavriil et al. 2008), suggests that all high-B radio pulsars may be magnetars in quiescence, consistent with models of magnetothermal evolution (e.g., Pons & Perna 2011; Perna & Pons 2011).”
• Neutron Stars—Cooling and Transport (2015, background): “Noticeable liberation of energy in the crust may also occur during starquakes (Haensel et al. 1990; Franco et al. 2004; Perna and Pons 2011).”
• Fast radio bursts as synchrotron maser emission from decelerating relativistic blast waves (2019, background): “As magnetars age and become less active (e.g. Perna & Pons 2011; Beloborodov & Li 2016), the intervals ∆T between their major flares could increase.”
• Unifying the observational diversity of isolated neutron stars via magneto-thermal evolution models. (2013, background): “The estimated outburst rate, resulting from breaking of the crust by the strong magnetic stresses, is found to be an increasing function of the initial magnetic field strength and a decreasing function of age (in agreement with the results of Perna & Pons 2011; Pons & Perna 2011).”