Publication Date:
2008-09-27
Description:
Magnetars are young neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields of the order of 10(14)-10(15) G. They are detected in our Galaxy either as soft gamma-ray repeaters or anomalous X-ray pulsars. Soft gamma-ray repeaters are a rare type of gamma-ray transient sources that are occasionally detected as bursters in the high-energy sky. No optical counterpart to the gamma-ray flares or the quiescent source has yet been identified. Here we report multi-wavelength observations of a puzzling source, SWIFT J195509+261406. We detected more than 40 flaring episodes in the optical band over a time span of three days, and a faint infrared flare 11 days later, after which the source returned to quiescence. Our radio observations confirm a Galactic nature and establish a lower distance limit of approximately 3.7 kpc. We suggest that SWIFT J195509+261406 could be an isolated magnetar whose bursting activity has been detected at optical wavelengths, and for which the long-term X-ray emission is short-lived. In this case, a new manifestation of magnetar activity has been recorded and we can consider SWIFT J195509+261406 to be a link between the 'persistent' soft gamma-ray repeaters/anomalous X-ray pulsars and dim isolated neutron stars.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Castro-Tirado, A J -- de Ugarte Postigo, A -- Gorosabel, J -- Jelinek, M -- Fatkhullin, T A -- Sokolov, V V -- Ferrero, P -- Kann, D A -- Klose, S -- Sluse, D -- Bremer, M -- Winters, J M -- Nuernberger, D -- Perez-Ramirez, D -- Guerrero, M A -- French, J -- Melady, G -- Hanlon, L -- McBreen, B -- Leventis, K -- Markoff, S B -- Leon, S -- Kraus, A -- Aceituno, F J -- Cunniffe, R -- Kubanek, P -- Vitek, S -- Schulze, S -- Wilson, A C -- Hudec, R -- Durant, M -- Gonzalez-Perez, J M -- Shahbaz, T -- Guziy, S -- Pandey, S B -- Pavlenko, L -- Sonbas, E -- Trushkin, S A -- Bursov, N N -- Nizhelskij, N A -- Sanchez-Fernandez, C -- Sabau-Graziati, L -- England -- Nature. 2008 Sep 25;455(7212):506-9. doi: 10.1038/nature07328.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAA-CSIC), PO Box 03004, E-18080 Granada, Spain. ajct@iaa.es〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818652" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink