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Title:
Magnetar-like X-ray bursts from an anomalous X-ray pulsar
Authors:
Gavriil, F. P.; Kaspi, V. M.; Woods, P. M.
Affiliation:
AA(Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3W 2C4, Canada), AB(Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3W 2C4, Canada), AC(Space Science Research Center, National Space Science and Technology Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35805, USA)
Publication:
Nature, Volume 419, Issue 6903, pp. 142-144 (2002). (Nature Homepage)
Publication Date:
09/2002
Origin:
NATURE
DOI:
10.1038/nature01011
Bibliographic Code:
2002Natur.419..142G

Abstract

Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are a class of rare X-ray emitting pulsars whose energy source has been perplexing for some 20 years. Unlike other X-ray emitting pulsars, AXPs cannot be powered by rotational energy or by accretion of matter from a binary companion star, hence the designation `anomalous'. Many of the rotational and radiative properties of the AXPs are strikingly similar to those of another class of exotic objects, the soft-γ-ray repeaters (SGRs). But the defining property of the SGRs-their low-energy-γ-ray and X-ray bursts-has not hitherto been observed for AXPs. Soft-γ-ray repeaters are thought to be `magnetars', which are young neutron stars whose emission is powered by the decay of an ultra-high magnetic field; the suggestion that AXPs might also be magnetars has been controversial. Here we report two X-ray bursts, with properties similar to those of SGRs, from the direction of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E1048.1 - 5937. These events imply a close relationship (perhaps evolutionary) between AXPs and SGRs, with both being magnetars.
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