A possible mechanism for magnetar soft X-ray/$\gamma$-ray emission

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/21/5/057109

Abstract Once the energies of electrons near the Fermi surface obviously exceed the threshold energy of the inverse β decay, electron capture (EC) dominates inside the magnetar. Since the maximal binding energy of the ³P₂ neutron Cooper pair is only about 0.048 MeV, the outgoing high-energy neutrons (E_k(n)>60 MeV) created by the EC can easily destroy the ³P₂ neutron Cooper pairs through the interaction of nuclear force. In the anisotropic neutron superfluid, each ³P₂ neutron Cooper pair has magnetic energy 2μ_nB in the applied magnetic field B, where μ_n=0.966× 10^-23 erg·G^-1 is the absolute value of the neutron abnormal magnetic moment. While being destroyed by the high-energy EC neutrons, the magnetic moments of the ³P₂ Cooper pairs are no longer arranged in the paramagnetic direction, and the magnetic energy is released. This released energy can be transformed into thermal energy. Only a small fraction of the generated thermal energy is transported from the interior to the surface by conduction, and then it is radiated in the form of thermal photons from the surface. After highly efficient modulation within the star's magnetosphere, the thermal surface emission is shaped into a spectrum of soft X-rays/$\gamma$-rays with the observed characteristics of magnetars. By introducing related parameters, we calculate the theoretical luminosities of magnetars. The calculation results agree well with the observed parameters of magnetars.

Keywords: Landau levels Fermi surface thermal radiation heat conduction

Received: 24 September 2011
Revised: 27 April 2012
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	71.70.Di	(Landau levels)
	71.18.+y	(Fermi surface: calculations and measurements; effective mass, g factor)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10773005), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB824800), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KJCX₂-YW-T09), and the Key Directional Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10173020, 10673021, 10778631 and 10903019).

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Gao Zhi-Fu(高志福), Peng Qiu-He(彭秋和), Wang Na(王娜), and Chou Chih-Kang(邹志刚) A possible mechanism for magnetar soft X-ray/$\gamma$-ray emission 2012 Chin. Phys. B 21 057109

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A possible mechanism for magnetar soft X-ray/$\gamma$-ray emission

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