Related papers: A model for giant flares in soft gamma repeaters
Fast Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs, frequencies of $\sim 20 - 1840$ Hz) have been recently discovered in the ringing tail of giant flares from Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs), when the luminosity was of order $10^{41}-10^{41.5}$ erg/s.…
P-stars are compact stars made of up and down quarks in $\beta$-equilibrium with electrons in a chromomagnetic condensate. We discuss p-stars endowed with super strong dipolar magnetic field which, following consolidated tradition in…
Intense flares that occur at late times relative to the prompt phase have been observed by the $Swift$ satellite in the X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here, we present a detailed analysis on the fall back accretion process to…
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. This has produced a…
AXPs and SGRs constitute a special population of young neutron stars, which are thought to be magnetars, i.e., neutron stars with super-strong magnetic fields (10^14 - 10^15 G). Assuming that AXPs and SGRs accrete matter from a fallback…
Tentative evidence suggests that the cores of massive neutron stars consist of deconfined quark matter. We argue that the formation of such a quark matter core during a galactic supernova could be accompanied by the emission of…
The soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 1806-20 has been attracting a lot of attention owing to the fact that in December 2004 it emitted the most powerful giant flare ever observed. Here we present the results of the first Suzaku observation of…
We consider a popular model for long-duration gamma-ray bursts, in which the progenitor star, a stripped helium core, is spun up by tidal interactions with a black- hole companion in a compact binary. We perform population synthesis…
Recent observations of short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) suggest that binary neutron star (NS) mergers can create highly magnetised, millisecond NSs. Sharp cut-offs in X-ray afterglow plateaus of some SGRBs hint at the gravitational collapse…
Soft gamma repeaters (SGR) are identified as single neutron stars (NS) inside the Galaxy, or nearby galaxies, with sporadic transient gamma radiation. A total number of discovered SGR, including relative Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXP), is…
According to the traditional scenario for core-collapse supernovae, the core of the collapsing star forms a neutron star and its gravitational energy release sends out a shockwave into the stellar envelope. However, in a significant number…
Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars powered by extreme magnetic fields. These rare objects are characterized by repeated and sometimes spectacular gamma-ray bursts. The…
Old and recent puzzles of GRBs and SGRs find a solution with a model based on the fast blazing of very collimated thin gamma Jets. Damped oscillating afterglows in GRB030329 find a natural explanation assuming a very thin Jet whose…
Recent models of carbon ignition on accreting neutron stars predict superburst ignition depths that are an order of magnitude larger than observed. We explore a possible solution to this problem, that the compact stars in low mass X-ray…
The gamma-ray burst (GRB) 060218 has ~ 10^5 times lower luminosity than typical long GRBs, and is associated with a supernova (SN). The radio afterglow displays no jet break, so that this burst might arise from a mildly-relativistic…
Magnetars are slowly-rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields that rarely produce extremely bright, energetic giant flares. Magnetar Giant Flares (MGFs) begin with a short (200 ms) intense flash, followed by fainter…
During the gravitational core collapse of a massive progenitor star which may give rise to at least a class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with supernovae, a stellar core rapidly passes through a short yet important phase of…
We present the unsaturated peak profile of SGR 1900+14 giant flare on 1998 August 27. This was obtained by particle counters of the Low Energy Particle instrument onboard the GEOTAIL spacecraft. The observed peak profile revealed four…
We discuss the consequences of almost rectilinear acceleration of protons to extremely high energies in a reconnection region on the surface of an accretion disk which surrounds a central black hole in an active galaxy. The protons produce…
Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs) are young neutron stars (NSs) characterized by high X-ray quiescent luminosities, outbursts, and, in the case of SGRs, sporadic giant flares. They are believed to be powered…