Understanding Magnetars with Conventional Physics. David Eichler

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1 Understanding Magnetars with Conventional Physics David Eichler

2 My collaborators Yuri Lyubarsky Chris Thompson Peter Woods Michael Gedalin Andrew Cheng (back in )

3 How can we tell what magnetars are made of?

4 How can we tell what magnetars are made of? Try thermal echos as a diagnostic (Eichler and Cheng 1989).

5 Short-term afterglow (hours): Settling of uplifted matter Medium-term afterglow (weeks): Cooling of outer crust Long-term afterglow (years): Cooling of inner crust

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7 Energy deposition Heat conductivity increases inward. Most heat goes in, not out. deeper

8 The Storage Problem research Physics Math research Central Administration Etc.

9 The change in the magnetic field geometry of

10 Periodic Emission: trapped pair plasma

11 The medium term afterglow of Flux F F=kt day 40 days Steady emission

12 The predicted medium term afterglow Lyubarsky,, Eichler, and Thompson (2002), especially Lyubarsky Assume central temperature corresponding to steady emission, 7 x 10 8 K, uniform energy deposition corresponding to observed burst energy

13 Conductivity E Fermi =E Landau

14 B= 3 x Gauss

15 B= 3 x Gauss

16 Several percent of burst energy escapes as surface radiation, the rest gets sucked into the star

17 White dwarf cooling after dwarf nova Arras, Bildsten

18 The really long term afterglow of Kouveliotou, Lyubarsky,, Eichler,..(2003) Assume deep heating of crust, but not core

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28 (Pairing energy for neutrons) Free, unpaired neutrons Neutrons becoming unpaired, heat capacity rising rapidly with T Neutrons all in superfluid state because T<<T c

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39 τ M

40 Perhaps the persistent emission from some magnetars is, in fact, long-term afterglow from heating of the inner crust. In this case, we may see their steady x-ray emission decline over a time scale of 5 10 years.

41 The short term afterglow of Thompson, Woods, Eichler and Lyubarsky 2003 Assume outer layer is heated by energy flux from above surface during initial flare, uplifted by pair pressure

42 Short Term Afterglow Hot Spot Pair free zone T=100KeV Pairs

43 Short Term Afterglow (some time later) Pair free zone T=100KeV Pairs Rate of cooling measures magnetic field T T constant, specific enthalpy h constant Flux = T/optical depth= TB/Σ dσ/dt = Flux/h Flux = kbtk -1/2

44 Short Term Afterglow (still later) Pairs have gone away Rate of cooling measures magnetic field Find B= Gauss (Thompson, Woods, Lyubarsky and DE 2003)

45 Ibrahim et al 2001 B= 6 x B=1 x10 14

46 Column density is at least about g in normal material

47 Magnetars as Optical Lasers

48 Dereddened flux > 2 x10-13 erg/cm 2 s D=5 to 10 Kpc Lopt >5 x erg/s

49 Magnetars as Optical Lasers Magnetospheric currents Magnetosphere Say the currents are relativistic pairs. Lorentz factor about Density about charges/cm 3. Plasma frequency as seen in the lab frame hz. Two stream instability (Gedalin( Gedalin, Gruman and Melrose, 2002) makes coherent optical or IR emission.

50 Optical Pulses from 4U0412 (Kern and Martin, Nature May )

51 Tearing Nucleons Apart

52 photo neutron - + V B

53 - + - V B

54 - - B + A ton of force

55 - - B Quark pair materializes

56 - - B + - +? N+Π o 2 γ

57 - - B - + +? + Π + Π + n µ +ν µ e+ν e +ν µ

58 Relativistic Petschek reconnection Current sheet Γ=σ 1/2 σ can be to for a magnetar,, so Γ can exceed 10 5

59 Polarization-induced charged mesons photoneutron p X-ray

60 Other indications of baryons in NS peripheries: GRB X-ray afterglow nearly always present Afterglow from 27 December event: Baryons seem to have been ejected at about 0.6c (Gelfand et al 2005)

61 Conclusions We may actually understand some of the crazy physics of magnetars.

62 Conclusions We may actually understand some of the crazy physics of magnetars. Magnetar crusts are consistent with ordinary matter. No ice nine scenario implied (yet). More research needed.

63 Conclusions We may actually understand some of the crazy physics of magnetars. Magnetar crusts are consistent with ordinary matter. No ice nine scenario implied (yet). Short term afterglow confirms B = 6 x Gauss

64 Conclusions We may actually understand some of the crazy physics of magnetars. Magnetar crusts are consistent with ordinary matter. No ice nine scenario implied (yet). Short term afterglow confirms B = 6 x Gauss Magnetars may be free electron optical lasers. Many predictions (wavefront( coherence, photon statistics, polarization ) ) can be tested.

65 Magnetars offer New quantum electrodynamics new condensed matter physics, new nuclear physics, maybe new laser physics, and lots of new astrophysics.