Hard X-ray Emission from Magnetars : A Case Study for Simbol X
Diego Gotz
备注：
6 pages, 6 figures, invited talk to the Simbol X International Workshop, The Hard X-ray Universe in Focus, Bologna 14-16 May 2007, to be published by Memorie della Societa' Astronomica Italiana
The magnetar model involves an isolated neutron star with a very high magnetic field (B~10^14-10^15 G), and is invoked to explain the emission processes of two classes of sources, the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs). Five of them have been recently identified to be persistent sources in the hard X-ray band (20-200 keV). AXPs, in particular, present the hardest known persistent spectra in the hard X/soft gamma-ray energy range. The broad band modeling of their spectra still suffers from the non-simultaneity of the observations and from a lack of sensitivity above 20 keV. We present the Simbol X simulated observations of these objects and show that that this mission could surely help to disentangle the contribution of the different spectral components, and to understand how they contribute to the secular flux variations observed in these sources.
SIMBOL-X is a hard X-ray mission, operating in the 0.5-70 keV range, which is proposed by a consortium of European laboratories for a launch around 2010. Relying on two spacecraft in a formation flying configuration, SIMBOL-X uses a 30 m focal length X-ray mirror to achieve an unprecedented angular resolution (30 arcsec HEW) and sensitivity (100 times better than INTEGRAL below 50 keV) in the hard X-ray range. SIMBOL-X will allow to elucidate fundamental questions in high energy astrophysics, such as the physics of accretion onto Black Holes, of acceleration in quasar jets and in supernovae re…
SIMBOL-X is a hard X-ray mission, operating in the ~ 0.5-70 keV range, which is proposed by a consortium of European laboratories in response to the 2004 call for ideas of CNES for a scientific mission to be flown on a formation flying demonstrator. Relying on two spacecrafts in a formation flying configuration, SIMBOL-X uses for the first time a ~ 30 m focal length X-ray mirror to focus X-rays with energy above 10 keV, resulting in a two orders of magnitude improvement in angular resolution and sensitivity in the hard X-ray range with respect to non focusing techniques. The SIMBOL-X revolutio…
Non thermal emission from galaxy clusters demonstrates the existence of relativistic particles and magnetic fields in the Intra Cluster Medium (ICM). Present instruments do not allow to firmly establish the energy associated to these components. In a few years gamma ray observations will put important constraints on the energy content of non thermal hadrons in clusters, while the combination of radio and hard X-ray data will be crucial to measure the energy content in the form of relativistic electrons and magnetic field. SIMBOL-X is expected to drive an important breakthrough in the field als…
SIMBOL-X is a high energy "mini" satellite class mission that is proposed by a European collaboration for a launch in 2009. SIMBOL-X is making use of a classical X-ray mirror, of ~600 cm2 maximum effective area, with a 30 m focal length in order to cover energies up to several tens of keV. This focal length will be achieved through the use of two spacecrafts in a formation flying configuration. This will give to SIMBOL-X unprecedented spatial resolution (20 arcsec HEW) and sensitivity in the hard X-ray range. By its coverage, from 0.5 to 70 keV, and sensitivity, SIMBOL-X will be an excellent i…
Despite the enormous progress occurred in the last 10 years, the Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) phenomenon is still far to be fully understood. One of the most important open issues that have still to be settled is the afterglow emission above 10 keV, which is almost completely unexplored. This is due to the lack of sensitive enough detectors operating in this energy band. The only detection, by the BeppoSAX/PDS instrument (15-200 keV), of hard X-ray emission from a GRB (the very bright GRB 990123), combined with optical and radio observations, seriously challenged the standard scenario in which the d…
SIMBOL-X is a high energy "mini" satellite class mission that is proposed by a French-Italian-English collaboration for a launch in 2009. SIMBOL-X is making use of a classical X-ray mirror, of ~ 600 cm2 maximum effective area, with a 30 m focal length in order to cover energies up to several tens of keV. This focal length will be achieved through the use of two spacecrafts in a formation flying configuration. This will give to SIMBOL-X unprecedented spatial resolution (20" HEW) and sensitivity in the hard X-ray range. By its coverage, from 0.5 to 70 keV, and sensitivity, SIMBOL-X will be an ex…
Based on spectral simulations, I show how focusing of the X-ray radiations above 10 keV will open a new window for the study of microquasars. With simulations of soft and hard state spectra of Galactic sources, I discuss how SIMBOL-X can help to precisely measure the spin of black holes. Spectral study on short ~1 s time scales will also allow the accretion-ejection connections to be accessed, and the formation of jets possibly witnessed in X-rays. I then turn to external galaxies, and demonstrate that spectral studies of hard sources will be possible up to at least ~1 Mpc. For such sources, s…
The imaging performance of X-ray optics (expressed in terms of HEW, Half-Energy-Width) can be severely affected by X-ray scattering caused by the surface roughness of the mirrors. The impact of X-ray scattering has an increasing relevance for increasing photon energy, and can be the dominant problem in a hard X-ray telescope like SIMBOL-X. In this work we show how, by means of a novel formalism, we can derive a surface roughness tolerance - in terms of its power spectrum - from a specific HEW requirement for the SIMBOL-X optical module.
An increasing number of early-type (O and Wolf-Rayet) colliding wind binaries (CWBs) is known to accelerate particles up to relativistic energies. In this context, non-thermal emission processes such as inverse Compton (IC) scattering are expected to produce a high energy spectrum, in addition to the strong thermal emission from the shock-heated plasma. SIMBOL-X will be the ideal observatory to investigate the hard X-ray spectrum (above 10 keV) of these systems, i.e. where it is no longer dominated by the thermal emission. Such observations are strongly needed to constrain the models aimed at …
Similarly to the larger Galactic ridge, the Galactic center region presents a hard diffuse emission whose origin has been strongly debated for the past two decades: does this emission result from the contribution of numerous, yet unresolved, discrete point sources ? Or does it originate in a truly diffuse, hot plasma ? The Galactic center region (GC) is however different on many respects from the outer parts of the Galaxy, which makes the diffuse emission issue at the Galactic center unique. Although recent observations seem to favour a point sources origin in the far Galactic ridge, the situa…
Chandra and XMM-Newton have surveyed several nearby star forming regions and have greatly advanced our knowledge of X-ray emission from Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). After briefly reviewing it I discuss the advancements in this research field that could be possible with Simbol-X unique imaging capability in the hard X-ray bandpass.
I briefly review our current knowledge of the non thermal emission from galaxy clusters and discuss future prospect with Simbol-X. Simbol-X will map the hard X-ray emission in clusters, determine its origin and disentangle the thermal and non-thermal components. Correlated with radio observations, the observation of the non-thermal X-ray emission, when confirmed, will allow to map both the magnetic field and the relativistic electron properties, key information to understand the origin and acceleration of relativistic particles in clusters and its impact on cluster evolution.
In this paper the current status of high-energy research on the hard X-ray characteristics of the persistent emission from magnetars is reviewed. Focus is put on recent intriguing results for 1RXS J1708-40, from phase resolved spectral analysis over a 2 decades wide energy band (~3-300 keV) combining contemporaneous RXTE, XMM and INTEGRAL data. For 1E 1841-045 and SGR 1806-10 we also present updated results. The perspective for future MAXI observations for this source class is also addressed.
Using 2.5 Ms of data obtained by the INTEGRAL satellite in 2003-2004, we discovered persistent hard X-ray emission from the soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 1900+14. Its 20-100 keV spectrum is well described by a steep power law with photon index Gamma=3.1+/-0.5 and flux 1.5E-11 erg/cmsq/s. Contrary to SGR 1806-20, the only other soft gamma-ray repeater for which persistent emission above 20 keV was reported, SGR 1900+14 has been detected in the hard X-ray range while it was in a quiescent state (the last bursts from this source were observed in 2002). By comparing the broad band spectra (1-100 keV…
Magnetar's persistent emission above 10 keV was recently discovered thanks to the imaging capabilities of the IBIS coded mask telescope on board the INTEGRAL satellite. The only two sources that show some degree of long term variability are SGR 1806-20 and 1RXS J170849.0-400910. We find some indications that variability of these hard tails could be the driver of the spectral variability measured in these sources below 10 keV. In addition we report for the first time the detection at 2.8 sigma level of pulsations in the hard X-ray tail of SGR 1806-20.
The possibilities of observing some nonlinear electrodynamic effects, which can be manifested in hard emission of X-ray, gamma ray pulsars and magnetars by X-ray and gamma ray astronomy methods are discussed. The angular resolution and sensitivity of modern space observatories give the opportunity to study the nonlinear electrodynamic effects, which can occur in very strong magnetic fields of pulsars ($B\sim 10^{12}$ G) and magnetars ($B\sim 10^{15}$ G). Such magnetic field magnitudes are comparable with the typical value of magnetic field induction necessary for manifestation of electrodynami…
Thanks to INTEGRAL's long exposures of the Galactic Plane, the two brightest Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, have been monitored and studied in detail for the first time at hard-X/soft-gamma rays. SGR 1806-20, lying close to the Galactic Centre, and being very active in the past two years, has provided a wealth of new INTEGRAL results, which we will summarise here: more than 300 short bursts have been observed from this source and their characteristics have been studied with unprecedented sensitivity in the 15-200 keV range. A hardness-intensity anticorrelation within th…
To identify extragalactic magnetar flares, we have searched for their periodic tails by generating Lomb periodograms of the emission following short bursts detected by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE). Out of 358 short bursts examined, one has a significant tail periodicity (T = 13.8 s, P = 4 x 10^-5). The most probable host galaxy for this burst is "The Fireworks Galaxy" NGC 6946 (d = 5.9 Mpc). At this distance, the energy of the spike, (2.7 +/- 0.3) x 10^44 ergs, is akin to those of the galactic magnetar giant flares, as are its duration (~ 0.4 s) and temperature (250 +/- 60…
The prototype for events that we call MFs - "March Fifth" events or "Magnetar Flares" - was observed on March 5, 1979. There is evidence that MFs are powered by catastrophic magnetic instabilities in ultramagnetized neutron stars. These events begin with brief (~ 0.1 - 1 s), intense, hard spikes of gamma rays followed by long (~ 100 s) softer tails of hard X-rays, modulated on the stellar rotation period. Prototypical MFs could have been detected by BATSE out to ~ 13 Mpc, nearly reaching the Virgo cluster. The likely number of isotropic, standard-candle MFs detected by the BATSE experiment is …
(Abridged) We present a systematic fit of a model of resonant cyclotron scattering (RCS) to the X-ray data of ten magnetars, including canonical and transient anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). In this scenario, non-thermal magnetar spectra in the soft X-rays (i.e. below ~10 keV) result from resonant cyclotron scattering of the thermal surface emission by hot magnetospheric plasma. We find that this model can successfully account for the soft X-ray emission of magnetars, while using the same number of free parameters than the commonly used empirical blackbody plus…
Slow dissipation of non-potential magnetic fields in the magnetosphere of the magnetar is assumed to accelerate particles to hundreds MeV along the magnetic field lines. We consider interaction of fast particles with the surface of the magnetar. We argue that the collisionless dissipation does not work in the atmosphere of the neutron star because the two-stream instability is stabilized by the inhomogeneity of the atmosphere. Rather, the dominant dissipation mechanism is collisional Landau levelexcitations followed by pair production via the deexcitation gamma-rays ultimately leading to elect…
Recent models of spectral formation in magnetars called renewed attention on electron-photon scattering in the presence of ultra-strong magnetic fields. Investigations presented so far mainly focussed on mildly relativistic particles and magnetic scattering was treated in the non-relativistic (Thomson) limit. This allows for consistent spectral calculations up to a few tens of keVs, but becomes inadequate in modelling the hard tails (<200 keV) detected by INTEGRAL from magnetar sources. In this paper, the second in a series devoted to model the X-/soft gamma-ray persistent spectrum of magnetar…
We present the first self-consistent theoretical models of magnetar spectra that take into account the combined effects of the stellar atmosphere and its magnetosphere. We find that the proton cyclotron lines that are already weakened by atmospheric effects become indistinguishable from the continuum for moderate scattering optical depths in the magnetosphere. Furthermore, the hard excess becomes more pronounced due to resonant scattering and the resulting spectra closely resemble the observed magnetar spectra. We argue that while the absence of proton cyclotron lines in the observed spectra a…
Spectral studies of quiescent emission and bursts of magnetar candidates using XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift data are presented. Spectra of both the quiescent emission and the bursts for most magnetar candidates are reproduced by a photoelectrically absorbed two blackbody function (2BB). There is a strong correlation between lower and higher temperatures of 2BB (kT_LT and kT_HT) for the magnetar candidates of which the spectra are well reproduced by 2BB. In addition, a square of radius for kT_T (R_LT^2) is well correlated with a square of radius for kT_HT (R_HT^2). A ratio kT_LT/kT_HT ~ 0.4 is…
We first review on the peculiar characteristics of the bursting and flaring activity of the Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars. We then report on the properties of the SGR 1806-20's Giant Flare occurred on 2004 December 27th, with particular interest on the pre and post flare intensity/hardness correlated variability. We show that these findings are consistent with the picture of a twisted internal magnetic field which stresses the star solid crust that finally cracks causing the giant flare (and the observed torsional oscillations). This crustal fracturing is accompanied by …
SGRs denote ``soft $γ$-ray repeaters'', a small class of slowly spinning neutron stars with strong magnetic fields. On 27 December 2004, a giant flare was detected from magnetar SGR 1806-20. The initial spike was followed by a hard-X-ray tail persisting for 380 s with a modulation period of 7.56 s. This event has received considerable attention, particularly in the astrophysics area. Its relevance to the geophysics community lies in the importance of investigating the effects of such an event on the near-earth electromagnetic environment. However, the signature of a magnetar flare on the geoma…
Although the surface of a magnetar is a source of bright thermal X-rays, its spectrum contains substantial non-thermal components. The X-ray emission is pulsed, with pulsed fractions that can be as high as ~ 70%. Several properties of magnetars indicate the presence of persistent, static currents flowing across the stellar surface and closing within the magnetosphere. The charges supporting these currents supply a significant optical depth to resonant cyclotron scattering in the 1-100 keV band. Here we describe a Monte Carlo approach to calculating the redistribution of thermal seed photons in…
Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) are among the most enigmatic sources known today. Exhibiting huge X- and Gamma-ray bursts and flares, as well as soft quiescent X-ray emission, their energy source remains a mystery. Just as mysterious are the Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), which share many of the same characteristics. Thanks to recent Chandra observations, SGR 0526-66, the first SGR, now appears to be a transition object bridging the two classes, and therefore observations of it have implications for both SGRs and AXPs. The two most popular current models for their persistent emission are accr…
Light bending due to strong gravity has recently been invoked to explain variability and flux correlations between different bands in some accreting black holes. A characteristic feature of light bending is reflection-dominated spectra, especially if photon sources lie in the deepest parts of the gravitational potential within a few gravitational radii of the event horizon. We use the spectrum of the hard X-ray background in order to constrain the prevalence of such reflection-dominated sources. We first emphasize the need for reflection and explore the broad-band properties of realistic spect…
Evidence is growing for a class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) characterized by an initial ~0.1-1 s spike of hard radiation followed, after a ~3-10 s lull in emission, by a softer period of extended emission lasting ~10-100 s. In a few well-studied cases, these ``short GRBs with extended emission'' show no evidence for a bright associated supernova (SN). We propose that these events are produced by the formation and early evolution of a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star (a ``proto-magnetar'') which is formed from the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf (WD), the merger…
The energy source powering the X-ray emission from anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) is still uncertain. In one scenario, the presence of an ultramagnetized neutron star, or ``magnetar'', with B on the order of 10^{14} - 10^{15} G is invoked. To investigate this hypothesis, we have analyzed archival ASCA data for several known AXPs and SGRs, and fitted them with a model in which all or part of the X-ray flux originates as thermal emission from a magnetar. Our magnetar spectral model includes the effects of the anisotropy of the heat flow through an ultramagneti…
We examine the accretion properties in a sample of 42 hard (3-60keV) X-ray selected nearby broad-line AGNs. The energy range in the sample is harder than that usually used in the similar previous studies. These AGNs are mainly complied from the RXTE All Sky Survey (XSS), and complemented by the released INTEGRAL AGN catalog. The black hole masses, bolometric luminosities of AGN, and Eddington ratios are derived from their optical spectra in terms of the broad H$β$ emission line. The tight correlation between the hard X-ray (3-20keV) and bolometric/line luminosity is well identified in our samp…
We present detailed spectral and timing analysis of the hard x-ray transient IGR J16358-4726 using multi-satellite archival observations. A study of the source flux time history over 6 years, suggests that lower luminosity transient outbursts can be occuring in intervals of at most 1 year. Joint spectral fits of the higher luminosity outburst using simultaneous Chandra/ACIS and INTEGRAL/ISGRI data reveal a spectrum well described by an absorbed power law model with a high energy cut-off plus an Fe line. We detected the 1.6 hour pulsations initially reported using Chandra/ACIS also in the INTEG…
We have discovered four X-ray bursts, recorded with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array between 2003 September and 2004 April, that we show to originate from the transient magnetar candidate XTE J1810-197. The burst morphologies consist of a short spike or multiple spikes lasting ~1 s each followed by extended tails of emission where the pulsed flux from XTE J1810-197 is significantly higher. The burst spikes are likely correlated with the pulse maxima, having a chance probability of a random phase distribution of 0.4%. The burst spectra are best fit to a blackbody with …
Magnetars comprise two classes of rotating neutron stars (Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars), whose X-ray emission is powered by an ultrastrong magnetic field, B ~ 10^15 G. Occasionally SGRs enter into active episodes producing many short X-ray bursts; extremely rarely (about once per 50 years per source), SGRs emit a giant flare, an event with total energy at least 1000 times higher than their typical bursts. Here we report that, on 2004 December 27, SGR 1806-20 emitted the brightest extra-solar transient event ever recorded, even surpassing the full moon brightness for …
The anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma-repeaters are peculiar high-energy sources believed to host a magnetar, i.e. an ultra-magnetized neutron star. Their persistent, soft X-ray emission (~1-10 keV)is usually modeled by the superposition of a blackbody and a power-law tail. It has been suggested that this spectrum forms as the thermal photons emitted by the star surface traverse the magnetosphere. Magnetar magnetospheres are likely different from those of ordinary radio-pulsars, since the external magnetic field may acquire a toroidal component as a consequence of the deformation of the s…
We consider the voltage structure in the open-field circuit and outer magnetosphere of a magnetar. The standard polar-cap model for radio pulsars is modified significantly when the polar magnetic field exceeds 1.8x10^{14} G. Pairs are created by accelerated particles via resonant scattering of thermal X-rays, followed by the nearly instantaneous conversion of the scattered photon to a pair. A surface gap is then efficiently screened by e+- creation, which regulates the voltage in the inner part of the circuit to ~10^9 V. We also examine the electrostatic gap structure that can form when the ma…
Soft-gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are galactic X-ray stars that emit numerous short-duration (about 0.1 s) bursts of hard X-rays during sporadic active periods. They are thought to be magnetars: strongly magnetized neutron stars with emissions powered by the dissipation of magnetic energy. Here we report the detection of a long (380 s) giant flare from SGR 1806-20, which was much more luminous than any previous transient event observed in our Galaxy. (In the first 0.2 s, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years.) Its power can be explained by a catast…
P-stars are compact stars made of up and down quarks in $β$-equilibrium with electrons in a chromomagnetic condensate. We discuss p-stars endowed with super strong dipolar magnetic field which, following consolidated tradition in literature, are referred to as magnetars. We show that soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous $X$-ray pulsars can be understood within our theory. We find a well defined criterion to distinguish rotation powered pulsars from magnetic powered pulsars. We show that glitches, that in our magnetars are triggered by magnetic dissipative effects in the inner core, explain b…
P-stars are compact stars made of up and down quarks in beta-equilibrium with electrons in a chromomagnetic condensate. P-stars are able to account for compact stars like RXJ 1856.5-3754 and RXJ 0720.4-3125, stars with radius comparable with canonical neutron stars, as well as super massive compact objects like SgrA*. We discuss p-stars endowed with super strong dipolar magnetic field which, following consolidated tradition in literature, are referred to as magnetars. We show that soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars can be understood within our theory. We find a well defined c…
