Speaker
Prof.
Sandro Mereghetti
(INAF, IASF-MILANO)
Description
Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs)
are peculiar X-ray sources which are believed to be magnetars:
ultra-magnetized neutron stars with surface field in excess of 10^14 G,
i.e. well above the QED threshold. For this reason their study has
far reaching implications for several fields of physics and astrophysics.
After summarizing the properties of these sources and the evidence
that they consist of highly magnetized neutron stars, I will present the
results of recent observations focusing in particular on the discovery of
magnetars with surprisingly small period derivatives.
Primary author
Prof.
Sandro Mereghetti
(INAF, IASF-MILANO)
