The gamma-ray giant flare from SGR1806-20: Evidence for crustal cracking via initial timescales

Abstract

We report here on serendipitous observations of the intense gamma-ray flare from SGR 1806-20 that occured on 27 December 2004. Unique data from the Cluster and Double Star-2 satellites, designed to study the Earth's magnetosphere, provide the first observational evidence of three separate timescales within the early (first 100ms) phases of this class of events. These observations reveal that, in addition to the initial very steep (<0.25ms) X-ray onset, there is firstly a 4.9ms exponential rise timescale followed by a continued exponential rise in intensity on a timescale of 70ms. These three timescales are a prominent feature of current theoretical models including the timescale (several ms) for fracture propagation in the crust of the neutron star.

10 pages including 2 figures Ap J Letters in press, May 2005

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• A Swift gaze into the 2006 March 29th burst forest of SGR 1900+14
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• Stacked Search for Gravitational Waves from the 2006 SGR 1900+14 Storm
• Search for gravitational wave radiation associated with the pulsating tail of the SGR 1806-20 hyperflare of 27 December 2004 using LIGO
• The Giant Flare of December 27, 2004 from SGR 1806-20
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