The X-ray afterglow flat segment in short GRB 051221A: Energy injection from a millisecond magnetar?

By Yizhong Fan, Dong Xu. 2006

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The flat segment, lasting similar to 10(4) s, in the X-ray afterglow of GRB 051221A represents the first clear case of strong energy injection in the external shock of a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow. In this work, we show that a millisecond pulsar with a dipole magnetic field similar to 10(14) Gauss could well account for that energy injection. The good quality X-ray flat segment thus suggests that the central engine of this short burst may be a millisecond magnetar.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e3fb0a730167ea83561025318c85de6a27558cbc

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. Bing Zhang
2. E. Berger
3. Pawan Kumar
4. B. Metzger
5. E. Liang
6. Binbin Zhang
7. D. Burrows
8. He Gao

Citations in the corpus

• The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, background): “This suggests that NS-NS mergers may also give rise to a supra-massive, likely highly magnetized, millisecond magnetar (e.g. Dai et al., 2006; Gao and Fan, 2006; Fan and Xu, 2006; Metzger et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2008; Anderson et al., 2008; Giacomazzo et al., 2011).”
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift XRT Data. II. Diverse Physical Origins of the Shallow Decay Segment (2007, result): “…with the expectation of the energy injection model from a central pulsar (Dai & Lu 1998a; Zhang & Mészáros 2001), suggesting that the pulsar injection model may be consistent with the data at least for some GRBs (see also Grupe et al. 2007; Fan & Xu 2006; De Pasquale et al. 2007; Yu et al. 2007).”
• BRIGHT “MERGER-NOVA” FROM THE REMNANT OF A NEUTRON STAR BINARY MERGER: A SIGNATURE OF A NEWLY BORN, MASSIVE, MILLISECOND MAGNETAR (2013, background): “…the uncertainties of nuclear matter equation-of-state and NS mass distributions of the merger systems, it is possible that at least some NS-NS mergers would leave behind a stable (for hours to days), rapidly rotating NS (e.g. Dai et al. 2006; Fan & Xu 2006; Zhang 2013; Giacomazzo & Perna 2013).”
• The unusual X-ray emission of the short Swift GRB 090515: evidence for the formation of a magnetar? (2010, background): “Magnetar models have also been proposed to explain late central engine activity in SGRBs; for example, late-time plateaus in the X-ray afterglows (Fan & Xu 2006; Dall’Osso et al. 2010; Yu, Cheng & Cao 2010) and X-ray flares (Fan, Zhang & Proga 2005; Gao & Fan 2006).”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2007, background): “However, numerical calculations suggest that a pulsar model can fit some f the XRT light curves (Fan & Xu 2006; De Pasquale et al. 2006b; Yu & Dai 2006).”
• A POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN FAST RADIO BURSTS AND GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, background): “…that a millisecond magnetar is indeed operating in both long (Usov 1992; Bucciantini et al. 2009; Metzger et al. 2011) and short (Dai et al. 2006; Fan & Xu 2006; Metzger et al. 2008; Kiuchi et al. 2012) GRBs1, then the very steep decay at the end of internal plateaus suggests that the emission…”
• Signatures of magnetar central engines in short GRB light curves (2013, methodology): “Fan & Xu (2006) explained this as energy injection from a magnetar.”
• Gamma-ray burst afterglows (2006, background): “However, numerical calculations suggest that a pulsar model can fit some of the XRT lightcurves (Fan & Xu 2006; De Pasquale et al. 2006; Yu & Dai 2006).”
• FORMATION OF STABLE MAGNETARS FROM BINARY NEUTRON STAR MERGERS (2013, background): “…of Swift-detected SGRBs by Rowlinson et al. (2013) has showed that all SGRBs with one or more breaks in their X-ray light curves display a plateau phase, which can be interpreted as the luminosity of a relativistic magnetar wind (Zhang & Mészáros 2001; Fan & Xu 2006; Metzger et al. 2011).”