A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mereghetti, Sandro; Rigoselli, Michela; Salvaterra, Ruben; Pacholski, Dominik Patryk; Rodi, James Craig; Gotz, Diego; Arrigoni, Edoardo; D'Avanzo, Paolo; Adami, Christophe; Bazzano, Angela; Bozzo, Enrico; Brivio, Riccardo; Campana, Sergio; Cappellaro, Enrico; Chenevez, Jerome; De Luise, Fiore; Ducci, Lorenzo; Esposito, Paolo; Ferrigno, Carlo; Ferro, Matteo; Israel, Gian Luca; Le Floc'h, Emeric; Martin-Carrillo, Antonio; Onori, Francesca; Rea, Nanda; Reguitti, Andrea; Savchenko, Volodymyr; Souami, Damya; Tartaglia, Leonardo; Thuillot, William; Tiengo, Andrea; Tomasella, Lina; Topinka, Martin; Turpin, Damien; Ubertini, Pietro
• 署名单位: Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); University of Milano-Bicocca; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Universite Paris Saclay; CEA; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite; University of Milan; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Aix-Marseille Universite; University of Geneva; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); University of Insubria; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); Technical University of Denmark; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF); IUSS PAVIA; University College Dublin; University College Dublin; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio (ICE); Autonomous University of Barcelona; Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC); Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Universite PSL; Observatoire de Paris; Universite Paris Cite; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Sorbonne Universite; Sorbonne Universite; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); CNRS - National Institute for Earth Sciences & Astronomy (INSU); Universite PSL; Observatoire de Paris; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF)
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-4526
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07285-4
• 发表日期: 2024-05-05
• 页码: 58-+
• 关键词: photon imaging camera; soft-gamma-repeater; xmm-newton; ray flare; afterglows; sgr-1806-20; kilonovae; light; ibis

摘要

Magnetar giant flares are rare explosive events releasing up to 10(47)erg in gamma rays in less than 1second from young neutron stars with magnetic fields up to 10(15-16)G (refs. (1,2)). Only three such flares have been seen from magnetars in our Galaxy(3,4) and in the Large Magellanic Cloud(5) in roughly 50years. This small sample can be enlarged by the discovery of extragalactic events, as for a fraction of a second giant flares reach luminosities above 10(46)ergs(-1), which makes them visible up to a few tens of megaparsecs. However, at these distances they are difficult to distinguish from short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs); much more distant and energetic (10(50-53)erg) events, originating in compact binary mergers(6). A few short GRBs have been proposed(7-11), with different amounts of confidence, as candidate giant magnetar flares in nearby galaxies. Here we report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82 (ref. (12)). Its spectral properties, along with the length of the burst, the limits on its X-ray and optical counterparts obtained within a few hours, and the lack of a gravitational wave signal, unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar in M82.