English

Constraining the Properties of GRB Accreting Magnetar with $R/I$ Evolutionary Effects Using \emph{Swift}/XRT Data

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2026-01-01 v2

Abstract

A newly born millisecond magnetar has been proposed as one possible central engine of some long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) with X-ray plateau. In this work, we used a universal correlation between initial spin period (P0P_0) and surface magnetic field (BpB_p) of newborn magnetar based on an LGRB sample in \cite{Lan2025} to explore the propeller properties of accreting magnetars with R/IR/I evolutionary effects. We found that BpP0B_p-P_0 relation is approximately consistent with BpPeq7/6B_p\propto P_{\rm eq}^{7/6}. Here PeqP_{\rm eq} is equilibrium spin period in magnetic propeller model. The BpP0B_p-P_0 relation indicates that P0P_0 may not be true initial spin period of newborn magnetar but had reached an equilibrium spin period via fallback accretion in propeller model. The magnetar accretion rate in our LGRBs is in range of M˙105102Ms1\dot{M}\sim10^{-5}-10^{-2} M_{\odot} \rm s^{-1} by incorporating R/IR/I evolutionary effects and using the transition relation between gravitational mass MgM_g and baryonic mass MbM_b in different equations of state. Such accretion rates ensure that the accreting magnetars in our sample survive until reaching the equilibrium spin period, and the accretion rate is one order of magnitude lower compared to the statistical results in \cite{Stratta2018} and \cite{Linweili2020}, which used constant R/I/MgR/I/M_g scenario. We suggested that adopting a constant R/I/MgR/I/M_g scenario for modeling propeller regime in accreting magnetar results in a higher mass accretion rate, which may impair our understanding of the physical nature and its surroundings of accreting magnetar, and low-metallicity progenitors can provide enough material to satisfy the accretion requirements of newborn accreting magnetar in LGRBs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.22149,
  title  = {Constraining the Properties of GRB Accreting Magnetar with $R/I$ Evolutionary Effects Using \emph{Swift}/XRT Data},
  author = {Lin Lan and He Gao and Litao Zhao and Shunke Ai and Jie Lin and Long Li and Lang Xie and Li-Ping Xin and Jian-Yan Wei},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.22149},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, 6 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ, and matched with the published verison