About the observational check of the mechanism of gamma radiation in Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGR)

Abstract

Soft gamma repeaters (SGR) are identified as single neutron stars (NS) inside the Galaxy, or nearby galaxies, with sporadic transient gamma radiation. A total number of discovered SGR, including relative Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXP), is few tens of objects. Many of them show periodic radiation, connected with NS rotation, with periods 2-12 s. The slow rotation is accompanied by small rate of loss of rotational energy, which is considerably smaller than the observed sporadic gamma ray luminosity, and is many orders less that the luminosity during giant bursts, observed in 4 SGR. Therefore the energy source is usually connected with annihilation of very strong NS magnetic field. Another model is based on release of a nuclear energy stored in the NS nonequilibrium layer. We suggest here an observational test with could distinguish between these two models.