Burst Tails from SGR J1550-5418 Observed with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer

Abstract

We present the results of our extensive search using the Bayesian block method for long tails following short bursts from a magnetar, SGR J1550-5418, over all RXTE observations of the source. We identified four bursts with extended tails, most of which occurred during its 2009 burst active episode. The durations of tails range between ~13 s and over 3 ks, which are much longer than the typical duration of bursts. We performed detailed spectral and temporal analysis of the burst tails. We find that the spectra of three tails show a thermal nature with a trend of cooling throughout the tail. We compare the results of our investigations with the properties of four other extended tails detected from SGR 1900+14 and SGR 1806-20 and suggest a scenario for the origin of the tail in the framework of the magnetar model.

10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (7)

• The McGill Magnetar Catalog
• 1E 1547.0-5408: a radio-emitting magnetar with a rotation period of 2 seconds
• The Compact X-ray Source 1E 1547.0-5408 and the Radio Shell G327.24-0.13: A New Proposed Association between a Candidate Magnetar and a Candidate Supernova Remnant
• Outburst of the 2 s Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 1E 1547.0-5408
• NuSTAR observations of X-ray bursts from the magnetar 1E 1048.1-5937
• Detection of spectral evolution in the bursts emitted during the 2008-2009 active episode of SGR J1550 - 5418
• Detailed Investigations of the Dimmest Bursts from Two Magnetars, SGR J0501+4516 and SGR J1550-5418

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Magnetars
• Magnetar-like X-ray Bursts from a Rotation Powered Pulsar, PSR J1119-6127
• The effect of X-ray dust-scattering on a bright burst from the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408
• Burst and Outburst Characteristics of Magnetar 4U 0142+61
• Variation of Spectral and Timing Properties in the Extended Burst Tails from the Magnetar 4U 0142+61