Plastic damping of Alfvén waves in magnetar flares and delayed afterglow emission

Abstract

Magnetar flares generate Alfvén waves bouncing in the closed magnetosphere with energy up to $\sim 10^{46}$ erg. We show that on a 10-ms timescale the waves are transmitted into the star and form a compressed packet of high energy density. This packet strongly shears the stellar crust and initiates a plastic flow, heating the crust and melting it hundreds of meters below the surface. A fraction of the deposited plastic heat is eventually conducted to the stellar surface, contributing to the surface afterglow months to years after the flare. A large fraction of heat is lost to neutrino emission or conducted into the core of the neutron star.

10 pages, 12 figures, submitted to ApJ

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• Global Crustal Dynamics of Magnetars in Relation to their Bright X-ray Outbursts
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• Young magnetars with fracturing crusts as fast radio burst repeaters
• Particle-in-cell simulations of the twisted magnetospheres of magnetars
• Late time cooling of neutron star transients and the physics of the inner crust
• Dissipation of Alfvén Waves in Relativistic Magnetospheres of Magnetars
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• Weak Alfvénic turbulence in relativistic plasmas II: Current sheets and dissipation
• Instability of twisted magnetar magnetospheres
• Weak Alfvénic turbulence in relativistic plasmas. Part 1. Dynamical equations and basic dynamics of interacting resonant triads
• Pair Plasma in Super-QED Magnetic Fields and the Hard X-ray/Optical Emission of Magnetars
• Relativistic Alfvén Waves Entering Charge Starvation in the Magnetospheres of Neutron Stars
• Axion-mediated Transport of Fast Radio Bursts Originating in Inner Magnetospheres of Magnetars
• Strongly magnetized pulsars: explosive events and evolution
• Magnetised neutron star crust within effective relativistic mean-field model
• Radio Emission of Pulsars. I. Slow Tearing of a Quantizing Magnetic Field
• Force-free wave interaction in magnetar magnetospheres: Computational modeling in axisymmetry
• An Intermediate-field Fast Radio Burst Model and the Quasi-periodic Oscillation
• Flux Relaxation after two outbursts of the magnetar SGR 1627$-$41 and possible hard X-ray emission
• Consequences of Energetic Magnetar-Like Outbursts of Nearby Neutron Stars: ${}^{14}$C Events and the Cosmic Electron Spectrum
• Computational General Relativistic Force-Free Electrodynamics: I. Multi-Coordinate Implementation and Testing
• Eclipsed X-ray Bursts from Magnetar SGR J1935+2154 and the Fireball Measurements
• Neutron tunneling: A new mechanism to power explosive phenomena in neutron stars, magnetars, and neutron star mergers