Discovery of a New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR J1833–0832

On 2010 March 19, the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope triggered on a short burst with temporal and spectral characteristics similar to those of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts. The source location, however, did not coincide with any known SGR. Subsequent observations of the source error box with the Sw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2010-07, Vol.718 (1), p.331-339
Main Authors: Göğüş, E, Cusumano, G, Levan, A. J, Kouveliotou, C, Sakamoto, T, Barthelmy, S. D, Campana, S, Kaneko, Y, Stappers, B. W, de Ugarte Postigo, A, Strohmayer, T, Palmer, D. M, Gelbord, J, Burrows, D. N, van der Horst, A. J, Muñoz-Darias, T, Gehrels, N, Hessels, J. W. T, Kamble, A. P, Wachter, S, Wiersema, K, Wijers, R. A. M. J, Woods, P. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
DIPOLES
Earth, ocean, space
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
Exact sciences and technology
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MULTIPOLES
PULSARS
RADIATIONS
TELESCOPES
X RADIATION
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Summary:On 2010 March 19, the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope triggered on a short burst with temporal and spectral characteristics similar to those of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts. The source location, however, did not coincide with any known SGR. Subsequent observations of the source error box with the Swift/X-Ray Telescope and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer led to the discovery of a new X-ray source with a spin period of 7.56 s, confirming SGR J1833-0832 as a new magnetar. Based on our detailed temporal and spectral analyses, we show that the new SGR is rapidly spinning down (4 x 10{sup -12} s s{sup -1}) and find an inferred dipole magnetic field of 1.8 x 10{sup 14} G. We also show that the X-ray flux of SGR J1833-0832 remained constant for approximately 20 days following the burst and then started to decline. We derived an accurate location of the source with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and we searched for a counterpart in deep optical and infrared observations of SGR J1833-0832, and for radio pulsed emission with the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope. Finally, we compare the spectral and temporal properties of the source to other magnetar candidates.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/718/1/331