Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars

Castro-Tirado, A. J.de Ugarte Postigo, A.Gorosabel, J.Jelinek, M.Fatkhullin, T. A.Sokolov, V. V.Ferrero, P.Kann, D. A.Klose, S.Sluse, D.Bremer, M.Winters, J. M.Nuernberger, D.Perez-Ramirez, D.Guerrero, M. A.French, J.Melady, G.Hanlon, L.McBreen, B.Leventis, K.Markoff, S. B.Leon, S.Kraus, A.Aceituno, F. J.Cunniffe, R.Kubanek, P.Vitek, S.Schulze, S.Wilson, A. C.Hudec, R.Durant, M.Gonzalez-Perez, J. M.Shahbaz, T.Guziy, S.Pandey, S. B.Pavlenko, L.Sonbas, E.Trushkin, S. A.Bursov, N. N.Nizhelskij, N. A.Sanchez-Fernandez, C.Sabau-Graziati, L.2010-11-302010-11-302010-11-30200810.1038/nature07328https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/61048WOS:000259449600040Magnetars(1) are young neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields of the order of 10(14)-10(15) G. They are detected in our Galaxy either as soft gamma-ray repeaters or anomalous X-ray pulsars. Soft gamma-ray repeaters are a rare type of gamma-ray transient sources that are occasionally detected as bursters in the high-energy sky(2-4). No optical counterpart to the gamma-ray flares or the quiescent source has yet been identified. Here we report multi-wavelength observations of a puzzling source, SWIFT J195509+261406. We detected more than 40 flaring episodes in the optical band over a time span of three days, and a faint infrared flare 11 days later, after which the source returned to quiescence. Our radio observations confirm a Galactic nature and establish a lower distance limit of similar to 3.7 kpc. We suggest that SWIFT J195509+261406 could be an isolated magnetar whose bursting activity has been detected at optical wavelengths, and for which the long- term X- ray emission is short- lived. In this case, a new manifestation of magnetar activity has been recorded and we can consider SWIFT J195509+261406 to be a link between the 'persistent' soft gamma-ray repeaters/anomalous X- ray pulsars and dim isolated neutron stars.Xmm-Newton ObservationsSoft Gamma RepeatersX-RayV4641 SagittariiTransientSgrDiscoveryEmissionSgr1806-20OutburstFlares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron starstext::journal::journal article::research article