Related papers: Magnetic Reconnection Instabilities in Soft-Gamma …

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…

Fast $\gamma$-ray variability in blazars remains a central puzzle in high-energy astrophysics, challenging standard shock acceleration models. Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with jets pointed close to our line of sight,…

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…

We analyze multi-wavelength data of a M7.9/1N class solar flare which occurred on 27 April, 2006 from AR NOAA 10875. GOES soft X-ray images provide the most likely signature of two interacting loops and their reconnection, which triggers…

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory and simulations have shown that reconnection is triggered via a fast "ideal" tearing instability in current sheets whose inverse aspect ratio decreases to $a/L\sim S^{-1/3}$, with $S$ is the Lundquist number…

Observations of nearby star forming clouds with imaging X-ray telescopes have revealed that X-ray emission is elevated $10^1-10^4$ above main sequence levels in low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. The variability and spectral X-ray…

The debate surrounding fast magnetic energy dissipation by magnetic reconnection has remained a fundamental topic in the plasma universe, not only in the Earth's magnetosphere but in astrophysical objects such as pulsar magnetospheres and…

Magnetic reconnection associated to the double tearing mode (DTM) is investigated by means of resistive relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RRMHD) simulations. A linearly unstable double current sheet system in two dimensional cartesian…

We present an updated catalog of 113 X-ray flares detected by Swift in the ~33% of the X-ray afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB). 43 flares have a measured redshift. For the first time the analysis is performed in 4 different X-ray energy…

In this paper we propose a new mechanism describing the initial spike of giant flares in the framework of the starquake model. We investigate the evolution of a plasma on a closed magnetic flux tube in the magnetosphere of a magnetar in the…

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…

Magnetic reconnection is understood to be the main physical process that facilitates the transformation of magnetic energy into heat, motion, and particle acceleration during solar eruptions. Yet, observational constraints on reconnection…

We review the basic concepts of magnetic reconnection and propose a general framework for the astrophysical reconnection at large scales. Magnetic reconnection is the rearrangement of magnetic field topology. The conventional Sweet-Parker…

Solar flares are major space weather events that result from the explosive conversion of stored magnetic energy into bulk motion, plasma heating, and particle acceleration. While the standard flare model has proven highly successful in…

We propose a catastrophic magnetospheric model for magnetar precursors and their successive giant flares. Axisymmetric models of the magnetosphere, which contain both a helically twisted flux rope and a current sheet, are established based…

Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are generally accepted to be magnetars. Recently, Zhang, Xu & Qiao (2000, ApJ, 545, L127) proposed an alternative viewpoint about the nature of the SGRs (and AXPs). In this…

Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous x-ray pulsars (AXPs) are young and radio-quiet x-ray pulsars which have been rapidly spun-down to slow spin periods clustered in the range 5-12 s. Most of these unusual pulsars also appear to be…

Magnetic reconnection is a sporadic process responsible for energy release in space and laboratory plasmas. It is believed that the tearing mode instability may be responsible for the onset of reconnection in the magnetotail. However, due…

Magnetic reconnection, a fundamental plasma process associated with a rapid dissipation of magnetic energy, is believed to power many disruptive phenomena in laboratory plasma devices, the Earth magnetosphere, and the solar corona.…

In 1998 May, the soft gamma repeater SGR1900+14 emerged from several years of quiescence and emitted a series of intense bursts, one with a time history unlike any previously observed from this source. Triangulation using Ulysses, BATSE,…