The flat segment lasting ∼104 seconds in the X-ray afterglow of GRB051221A represents the first clear case of strong energy injection in the external shock of a short GRB afterglow. In this work, we show that a millisecond pulsar with dipole magnetic field ∼1014 Gauss could well account for that energy injection. The good quality X-ray flat segment thus suggests that the central engine of this short burst may be a millisecond magnetar.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0605445,
title = {The X-ray afterglow flat segment in short GRB 051221A: Energy injection from a millisecond magnetar?},
author = {Yizhong Fan and Dong Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0605445},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
4 pages including 1 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters, minor revision