Radiatively driven evaporation from magnetar's surface

Abstract

The luminosity of the Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) flares significantly exceeds the Eddington luminosity. This is because they emit mainly in the E-mode, for which the radiative cross-sections are strongly suppressed. The energy is released in the magnetosphere forming a magnetically trapped pair fireball, and the surface of the star is illuminated by the powerful radiation from the fireball. We study the ablation of the matter from the surface by this radiation. The E-mode photons are scattered within the surface layer, partly being converted into O-photons, whose scattering cross-section is of the order of the Thomson cross-section. The high radiation pressure of the O-mode radiation expels the plasma upwards. The uplifted matter forms a thick baryon sheath around the fireball. If an illuminated fraction of the star's surface includes the polar cap, a heavy, mildly relativistic baryonic wind is formed.

arXiv comment11 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (13)

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• Diagnosing the outflow from the SGR 1806-20 Giant Flare with Radio Observations
• A Re-brightening of the Radio Nebula associated with the 2004 December 27 giant flare from SGR 1806--20
• Radiative transfer simulations of magnetar flare beaming
• Models of hydrostatic magnetar atmospheres at high luminosities

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Dynamics of baryon ejection in magnetar giant flares: implications for radio afterglows, r-process nucleosynthesis, and fast radio bursts
• r-Process Nucleosynthesis and Radioactively Powered Transients from Magnetar Giant Flares
• Novae breves from magnetar giant flares: Potential probes of neutron star crusts