Explosive reconnection in magnetars

By M. Lyutikov. 2003

203 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The X-ray activity of anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft γ-ray repeaters may result from the heating of their magnetic corona by direct currents dissipated by magnetic reconnection. We investigate the possibility that X-rayflares and bursts observed from anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft γ-ray repeaters result from magnetospheric reconnection events initiated by development of the tearing mode in magnetically dominated relativistic plasma. We formulate equations of resistive force-free electrodynamics, discuss the relation of the latter to ideal electrodynamics, and give examples of both ideal and resistive equilibria. Resistive force-free current layers are unstable towards the development of small-scale current sheets where resistive effects become important. Thin current sheets are found to be unstable due to the development of the resistive force-free tearing mode. The growth rate of the tearing mode is intermediate between the short Alfven time-scale τ A and a long resistive time-scale τ R : r ∼ 1/(τ R τ A ) 1 / 2 , similar to the case of non-relativistic non-force-free plasma. We propose that growth of the tearing mode is related to the typical rise time of flares, ∼10 ms. Finally, we discuss how reconnection may explain other magnetar phenomena and ways to test the model.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6beca642c44f768fed968a7424a59d8d97b137cb

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Citations in the corpus

Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysical and (2009, background): “…as anomalous X-ray pulsars and as soft gamma repeaters also flare, SGR 1806-20 being a particularly dramatic example (Kaspi et al. 2003, Hurley et al. 2005), pointing to rapid release of magnetic energy, possibly through reconnection (Thompson & Duncan 1995, Lyutikov 2003, Schwartz et al. 2005).”
Non-thermal particle acceleration in collisionless relativistic electron-proton reconnection (2016, background): “…Cerutti et al. 2015); gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) (Drenkhahn & Spruit 2002; Giannios & Spruit 2006; McKinney & Uzdensky 2012); magnetospheres of magnetars (Lyutikov 2003, 2006; Uzdensky 2011); coronae of accreting black holes (BHs) in both galactic X-ray binaries (XRBs) and active galactic nuclei…”
A Reconnection Switch to Trigger gamma-Ray Burst Jet Dissipation (2010, background): “…(Kennel & Coroniti 1984; Coroniti 1990; Lyubarsky & Kirk 2001; Kirk & Skjæraasen 2003a; Nagata et al. 2008), field reversals in active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets (Lovelace, Romanova & Newman 1994; Lovelace, Newman & Romanova 1997), and magnetars (Thompson & Duncan 1995; Lyutikov 2003, 2006a).”
Science with ASKAP (2008, background): “Possibilities include the explosions of primordial black holes [213], and emission from merging neutron stars [122] and magnetars [180].”
TOWARD A REALISTIC PULSAR MAGNETOSPHERE (2011, background): “Others (Lyutikov 2003; Li, Spitkovsky, & Tchekhovskoy 2011) implemented a different version closely related to Ohm’s law.”
Simulations of the axisymmetric magnetospheres of neutron stars (2006, background): “As the result, the current sheet may become unstable to the tearing mode of reconnection (Lyutikov 2003).”
Short-hard gamma-ray bursts (2007, background): “Price & Rosswog (2006) suggest that bubbles of equipartition magnetic field can become buoyant and float up through the star surface producing a relativistic flow (Kluzniak & Lee, 1998; Lyutikov, 2003; Dai et al. , 2006).”
RESISTIVE SOLUTIONS FOR PULSAR MAGNETOSPHERES (2011, methodology): “Several formulations of resistive force-free equations have been proposed, most notably by Lyutikov (2003) and Gruzinov (2007, 2008).”
On the relativistic magnetic reconnection (2005, background): “These instabilities are also developed in relativistic current sheets (Zelenyi & Krasnosel’skikh 1979; Lyutikov 2003).”