The X-ray afterglow flat segment in short GRB 051221A: Energy injection from a millisecond magnetar?
Abstract
The flat segment, lasting ~104 s, in the X-ray afterglow of GRB 051221A represents the first clear case of strong energy injection in the external shock of a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow. In this work, we show that a millisecond pulsar with a dipole magnetic field ~1014 Gauss could well account for that energy injection. The good quality X-ray flat segment thus suggests that the central engine of this short burst may be a millisecond magnetar.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- October 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2006.00217.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0605445
- Bibcode:
- 2006MNRAS.372L..19F
- Keywords:
-
- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal: ISM: jets and outflows: gamma-rays: bursts;
- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal;
- ISM: jets and outflows;
- gamma-rays: bursts;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages including 1 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters, minor revision