Superflares from magnetars revealing the GRB central engine
Abstract
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may be powered by the rotational energy of a millisecond magnetar. I argue that the GRB-driving magnetars lie at the high end of the distribution of magnetic field strengths of magnetars. The field of GRB magnetars decays on timescale of hundreds of years and can power SGR-like flares up to ~100 times more powerful than the 2004 event of SGR 1806--20. A few of these flares per year may have been observed by BATSE and classified as short-duration GRBs. Association of one of these superflares with a nearby dL 250 Mpc galaxy and the discovery of a, coincident in space, 100-year-old GRB afterglow (observed in the radio) will be the characteristic signature of the magnetar model for GRBs.
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