Abstract
We present the results of the systematic study of all magnetar outbursts observed to date, through a reanalysis of data acquired in about 1100 X-ray observations. We track the temporal evolution of the outbursts soft X-ray spectral properties and the luminosities of the single spectral components as well as of the total emission. We model empirically all outburst light curves, and estimate the characteristic decay time-scales as well as the energetics involved. We investigate the link between different parameters (e.g. the luminosity at the peak of the outburst and in quiescence, the maximum luminosity increase, the decay time-scale and energy of the outburst, the neutron star surface dipolar magnetic field and characteristic age, etc.), and unveil several correlations among these quantities. We discuss our results in the context of the internal crustal heating and twisted bundle models for magnetar outbursts. This study is complemented by the Magnetar Outburst Online Catalogue (http://magnetars.ice.csic.es), an interactive data base where the user can plot any combination of the parameters derived in this work, and download all data.
Highlights
Magnetars are strongly magnetized isolated X-ray pulsars with spin periods P ∼ 2 − 12 s and secular spin-down rates P ∼ 10−15–10−11 s s−1, whose emission is powered by the decay and the instability of their ultra-strong magnetic field [1,2,3]
In which the persistent X-ray luminosity increases by a factor of ∼ 10 − 1000 up to ∼ 1035 − 1036 erg s−1, and declines back to the quiescent level on a time-scale ranging from a few weeks up to several years
Magnetar outbursts are likely triggered by local internal magnetic stresses that deform irreversibly part of the stellar crust and convert mechanically its magnetic energy into heat [4]
Summary
Magnetars are strongly magnetized (up to B ∼ 1014 − 1015 G) isolated X-ray pulsars with spin periods P ∼ 2 − 12 s and secular spin-down rates P ∼ 10−15–10−11 s s−1, whose emission is powered by the decay and the instability of their ultra-strong magnetic field [1,2,3]. If we consider all the hard X-ray observations of magnetar outbursts performed so far, our values for the bolometric fluxes are underestimated for a few sources (SGR 1806−20, 1E 2259+586, 1E 1547−5408, SGR 1745−2900, SGR 1935+2154, PSR J1119−6127 and 1E 161348−5055) mainly only at the outburst peak, yielding negligible differences in the estimated outburst energetics and decay timescale (see below).
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