Monday, December 3, 2012

1211.7347 (A. Camero-Arranz et al.)

A new low-B magnetar: Swift J1822.3-1606    [PDF]

A. Camero-Arranz, N. Rea, G. L. Israel, P. Esposito, J. A. Pons, R. P. Mignani, R. Turolla, S. Zane, M. Burgay, A. Possenti, S. Campana, T. Enoto, N. Gehrels, E. Gogus, D. Gotz, C. Kouveliotou, K. Makishima, S. Mereghetti, S. R. Oates
We report on the long term X-ray monitoring with Swift, RXTE, Suzaku, Chandra, and XMM-Newton of the outburst of the newly discovered magnetar Swift J1822.3-1606 (SGR 182-1606), from the first observations soon after the detection of the short X-ray bursts which led to its discovery (July 2011), through the first stages of its outburst decay (April 2012). Our X-ray timing analysis finds the source rotating with a period of P = 8.43772016(2) s and a period derivative Pdot = 8.3(2) x 10e-14 s s-1, which entails an inferred dipolar surface magnetic field of 2.7 x 10e13 G at the equator. This measurement makes Swift J1822.3-1606 the second lowest magnetic field magnetar (after SGR 0418+5729; Rea et al. 2010). Following the flux and spectral evolution from the beginning of the outburst, we find that the flux decreased by about an order of magnitude, with a subtle softening of the spectrum, both typical of the outburst decay of magnetars. By modeling the secular thermal evolution of Swift J1822.3+1606, we find that the observed timing properties of the source, as well as its quiescent X-ray luminosity, can be reproduced if it was born with a poloidal and crustal toroidal fields of Bp ~ 1.5 x 10e14 G and Btor ~ 7 x 10e14 G, respectively, and if its current age is ~550 kyr (more details in Rea et al. 2012).
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.7347

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