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Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2024

A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82

Sandro Mereghetti
  • Fonction : Auteur
Michela Rigoselli
  • Fonction : Auteur
Ruben Salvaterra
  • Fonction : Auteur
Dominik P Pacholski
  • Fonction : Auteur
James C Rodi
  • Fonction : Auteur
Edoardo Arrigoni
  • Fonction : Auteur
Paolo d'Avanzo
  • Fonction : Auteur
Angela Bazzano
  • Fonction : Auteur
Enrico Bozzo
  • Fonction : Auteur
Riccardo Brivio
  • Fonction : Auteur
Sergio Campana
  • Fonction : Auteur
Enrico Cappellaro
  • Fonction : Auteur
Jerome Chenevez
  • Fonction : Auteur
Fiore de Luise
  • Fonction : Auteur
Lorenzo Ducci
  • Fonction : Auteur
Paolo Esposito
  • Fonction : Auteur
Carlo Ferrigno
  • Fonction : Auteur
Matteo Ferro
  • Fonction : Auteur
Gian Luca Israel
  • Fonction : Auteur
Antonio Martin-Carrillo
  • Fonction : Auteur
Francesca Onori
  • Fonction : Auteur
Nanda Rea
  • Fonction : Auteur
Andrea Reguitti
  • Fonction : Auteur
Volodymyr Savchenko
  • Fonction : Auteur
Leonardo Tartaglia
  • Fonction : Auteur
Andrea Tiengo
  • Fonction : Auteur
Lina Tomasella
  • Fonction : Auteur
Martin Topinka
  • Fonction : Auteur
Pietro Ubertini
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Giant flares, short explosive events releasing up to 10$^{47}$ erg of energy in the gamma-ray band in less than one second, are the most spectacular manifestation of magnetars, young neutron stars powered by a very strong magnetic field, 10$^{14-15}$ G in the magnetosphere and possibly higher in the star interior. The rate of occurrence of these rare flares is poorly constrained, as only three have been seen from three different magnetars in the Milky Way and in the Large Magellanic Cloud in about 50 years since the beginning of gamma-ray astronomy. This sample can be enlarged by the discovery of extragalactic events, since for a fraction of a second giant flares reach peak luminosities above 10$^{46}$ erg/s, which makes them visible by current instruments up to a few tens of Mpc. However, at these distances they appear similar to, and difficult to distinguish from, regular short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The latter are much more energetic events, 10$^{50-53}$ erg, produced by compact binary mergers and originating at much larger distances. Indeed, only a few short GRBs have been proposed, with different levels of confidence, as magnetar giant flare candidates in nearby galaxies. Here we report the discovery of a short GRB positionally coincident with the central region of the starburst galaxy M82. Its spectral and timing properties, together with the limits on its X-ray and optical counterparts obtained a few hours after the event and the lack of an associated gravitational wave signal, qualify with high confidence this event as a giant flare from a magnetar in M82.

Dates et versions

hal-04396863 , version 1 (16-01-2024)

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Sandro Mereghetti, Michela Rigoselli, Ruben Salvaterra, Dominik P Pacholski, James C Rodi, et al.. A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. 2024. ⟨hal-04396863⟩
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