The strongest cosmic magnets: soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

By Sandro Mereghetti. 2008

569 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two classes of X-ray pulsars, the anomalous X-ray pulsars and the soft gamma-ray repeaters, have been recognized in the last decade as the most promising candidates for being magnetars: isolated neutron stars powered by magnetic energy. I review the observational properties of these objects, focussing on the most recent results, and their interpretation in the magnetar model. Alternative explanations, in particular those based on accretion from residual disks, are also considered. The possible relations between these sources and other classes of neutron stars and astrophysical objects are also discussed.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atmospheric Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/92b7823afec87c85a7790dcc3b59db36c9d44178

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. Pawan Kumar
3. B. Metzger
4. E. Berger
5. F. Ryde
6. A. Pe’er
7. T. Piran
8. L. Amati

In Atmospheric Science

1. Stan Woosley
2. A. Beloborodov
3. S. Olausen
4. O. De Marco
5. Victoria Kaspi
6. Robert G. Izzard
7. Jordan B. Camp
8. V. Petrosian

Citations in the corpus

• BRIGHT SUPERNOVAE FROM MAGNETAR BIRTH (2009, background): “Magnetars are a class of neutron stars with field strengths 1014 to 1015 G and more (Mereghetti 2008).”
• A RADIO-LOUD MAGNETAR IN X-RAY QUIESCENCE (2010, background): “Even within these errors, the ratio is significantly higher than for ordinary pulsars, but well within the range for the magnetars 1E 1547–5408 and XTE J1810–197 which haveLX ∼ 0.1Ė and LX ∼ 4Ė (Mereghetti 2008; Camilo et al. 2007a; Halpern et al. 2005) in quiescence and larger ratios in outburst.”
• THE THIRD SWIFT BURST ALERT TELESCOPE GAMMA-RAY BURST CATALOG (2015, background): “Moreover, the redshift of z∼0.96 measured from the emission lines from the possible host galaxy (Hartoog et al. 2014) suggests that this is not a Galactic source and is unlikely to be a soft gamma repeater (e.g., Mereghetti 2008).”
• The THESEUS space mission concept: science case, design and expected performances (2017, background): “in our Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds, but since most of them are transients with long quiescent periods, the total population waiting to be discovered is certainly much larger (Mereghetti, 2008).”
• THE McGILL MAGNETAR CATALOG (2013, background): “Several authors have written important review papers on magnetars, their observational properties, and outstanding questions in the field; (see Woods & Thompson 2006; Mereghetti 2008; Kaspi 2010; Rea & Esposito 2011; Mereghetti 2013).”
• Fast radio burst source properties and curvature radiation model (2017, background): “However, the B-field configuration very close to the surface of a NS (most likely a magnetar for FRBs) is still poorly understood (e.g. Mereghetti 2008), so the mechanism for forced reconnection of magnetic fields is uncertain.”
• THE FERMI GBM GAMMA-RAY BURST SPECTRAL CATALOG: THE FIRST TWO YEARS (2012, result): “Typically the models and fit parameters are consistent with those found from the observations of other instruments (for reviews, see Woods & Thompson (2006); Mereghetti (2008)).”
• UNTWISTING MAGNETOSPHERES OF NEUTRON STARS (2008, background): “In particular, neutron stars with ultrastrong fields B >∼ 1014 G (magnetars) are inferred to have dynamic magnetospheres (see e.g. reviews by Woods & Thompson 2006; Kaspi 2007; Mereghetti 2008).”
• Dawes Review 6: The Impact of Companions on Stellar Evolution (2016, background): “…(Ott, 2009), neutron stars collapsing to black holes (Baiotti, Hawke, & Rezzolla, 2007), cosmic string cusps (Damour & Vilenkin, 2001), starquakes in magnetars (Mereghetti, 2008), pulsar glitches (Andersson & Comer, 2001), and signals associated with gamma ray bursts (Abadie et al., 2012).”
• Unifying the observational diversity of isolated neutron stars via magneto-thermal evolution models. (2013, background): “…long periods, and the occurrence of bursts and outbursts characteristic of Anomalous Xray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) (Mereghetti 2008), are interpreted as different facets of the restless dynamics of a strong magnetic field in these (typically) young sources, in…”