Short-living Supermassive Magnetar Model for the Early X-ray Flares Following Short GRBs

We suggest a short-lived supermassive magnetar model to account for the X-ray flares following short γ-ray bursts. In this model the central engine of the short γ-ray bursts is a supermassive millisecond magnetar, formed in coalescence of double neutron stars. The X-ray flares are powered by the dipole radiation of the magnetar. When the magnetar has lost a significant part of its angular momentum, it collapses to a black hole and the X-ray flares cease abruptly.

[1]  D. Giannios Flares in GRB afterglows from delayed magnetic dissipation , 2006, astro-ph/0606441.

[2]  Yizhong Fan,et al.  The X-ray afterglow flat segment in short GRB 051221A: Energy injection from a millisecond magnetar? , 2006, astro-ph/0605445.

[3]  Daniel J. Price,et al.  Producing Ultrastrong Magnetic Fields in Neutron Star Mergers , 2006, Science.

[4]  X. F. Wu,et al.  X-ray Flares from Postmerger Millisecond Pulsars , 2006, Science.

[5]  T. Piran,et al.  The rate and luminosity function of Short GRBs , 2006, astro-ph/0602208.

[6]  D. Proga,et al.  The late time evolution of gamma-ray bursts: ending hyperaccretion and producing flares , 2006, astro-ph/0601272.

[7]  C. Dermer,et al.  Collapse of Neutron Stars to Black Holes in Binary Systems: A Model for Short Gamma-Ray Bursts , 2006, astro-ph/0601142.

[8]  P. Giommi,et al.  An origin for short γ-ray bursts unassociated with current star formation , 2005, Nature.

[9]  Bing Zhang,et al.  Flares in Long and Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: A Common Origin in a Hyperaccreting Accretion Disk , 2005, astro-ph/0511506.

[10]  Y. Z. Fan,et al.  The Optical Flare and Afterglow Light Curve of GRB 050904 at Redshift z = 6.29 , 2005, astro-ph/0511154.

[11]  B. Stephens,et al.  Magnetized hypermassive neutron-star collapse: a central engine for short gamma-ray bursts. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[12]  J.-L. Atteia,et al.  Discovery of the short γ-ray burst GRB 050709 , 2005, Nature.

[13]  M. M. Kasliwal,et al.  The afterglow of GRB 050709 and the nature of the short-hard γ-ray bursts , 2005, Nature.

[14]  D. Proga,et al.  Linearly Polarized X-Ray Flares following Short Gamma-Ray Bursts , 2005, astro-ph/0509019.

[15]  N. Gehrels,et al.  Physical Processes Shaping Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves: Theoretical Implications from the Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations , 2005, astro-ph/0508321.

[16]  D. Wei,et al.  Late internal‐shock model for bright X‐ray flares in gamma‐ray burst afterglows and GRB 011121 , 2005, astro-ph/0506155.

[17]  N. Gehrels,et al.  Bright X-ray Flares in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows , 2005, Science.

[18]  T. Sakamoto,et al.  A short γ-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225 , 2005, Nature.

[19]  Bing Zhang,et al.  γ‐ray burst internal shocks with magnetization , 2004, astro-ph/0407581.

[20]  E. Liang,et al.  Bifurcation and Lorentz-factor scaling of relativistic magnetized plasma expansion. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[21]  William H. Lee,et al.  Opaque or Transparent? A Link between Neutrino Optical Depths and the Characteristic Duration of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts , 2004, astro-ph/0404566.

[22]  Melvyn B. Davies,et al.  High-resolution calculations of merging neutron stars - III. Gamma-ray bursts , 2003, astro-ph/0306418.

[23]  Bing Zhang,et al.  An Analysis of Gamma-Ray Burst Spectral Break Models , 2002, astro-ph/0206158.

[24]  M. B. Davies,et al.  High-resolution calculations of merging neutron stars - I. Model description and hydrodynamic evolution , 2001, astro-ph/0110180.

[25]  C. Fryer,et al.  Astronomy: A new twist on neutron stars , 2001, Nature.

[26]  S. Shapiro Differential Rotation in Neutron Stars: Magnetic Braking and Viscous Damping , 2000, astro-ph/0010493.

[27]  Chris L. Fryer,et al.  To be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Formation Rates of Black Hole Accretion Disk Gamma-Ray Bursts , 1999 .

[28]  L. Stella,et al.  A Gamma-Ray Burst Model with Small Baryon Contamination , 1998, astro-ph/9808355.

[29]  V. Pandharipande,et al.  Equation of state of nucleon matter and neutron star structure , 1998, nucl-th/9804027.

[30]  W. Kluźniak,et al.  The Central Engine of Gamma-Ray Bursters , 1997, astro-ph/9712320.

[31]  N. Andersson A New Class of Unstable Modes of Rotating Relativistic Stars , 1997, gr-qc/9706075.

[32]  C. Thompson A Model of gamma-ray bursts , 1994 .

[33]  V. Usov On the nature of nonthermal radiation from cosmological gamma-ray bursters , 1993, astro-ph/9312024.

[34]  Stuart L. Shapiro,et al.  Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars in General Relativity: Realistic Equations of State , 1993 .

[35]  C. Thompson,et al.  Neutron star dynamos and the origins of pulsar magnetism , 1993 .

[36]  Christopher Thompson,et al.  Formation of very strongly magnetized neutron stars - Implications for gamma-ray bursts , 1992 .

[37]  S. Teukolsky,et al.  Spin-up of a rapidly rotating star by angular momentum loss: Effects of general relativity , 1992 .

[38]  M. Livio,et al.  Nucleosynthesis, neutrino bursts and γ-rays from coalescing neutron stars , 1989, Nature.