Speaker
Description
I will present a comprehensive analysis of all known magnetar outbursts observed up until 2018. This study utilizes over 1000 X-ray observations from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, supplemented by a hundred observations from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and other observatories. By tracking the temporal evolution of soft X-ray spectral properties and luminosities, and by empirically modeling light curves, we estimated decay timescales and energetics for each outburst. We investigated correlations among key quantities - such as peak and quiescent luminosities, outburst energies, decay rates, magnetic field strengths, and characteristic ages. These analyses revealed significant patterns that support models of internal crustal heating and twisted magnetospheric bundles for magnetar outbursts. I will introduce the Magnetar Outburst Online Catalogue, an interactive database designed for accessing all spectral files and visualizing the derived parameters, and discuss plans to update the catalogue in the near future to include outbursts detected in recent years.
