Chinese scientists find the “critical key” to the magnetar explosion – Passionategeekz

Passionategeekz According to June 15, magnetars refer to neutron stars with super magnetic fields, their strength is 10 trillion times that of ordinary refrigerator magnets. The energy released during the explosion is enough to illuminate the entire galaxy and is considered to be one of the most “terrifying” entities in the universe.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the research team of the Yunnan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences expanded the theory of solar explosion to the magnetar environment for the first time, and found the “critical key” for magnetars to produce super explosions.

Based on the theory of solar burst CME, this study established a three-dimensional magnetic flux rope catastrophe model of magnetar giant radiant and obtained the necessary conditions for the generation of giant radiant, providing a new perspective for understanding the burst process driven by magnetar magnetic field.

Magnets mainly contain anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP) and soft gamma repeat explosions (SGR). There are few such celestial bodies, and now there are about 30 of them detected in total, and they have super strong magnetic fields (B=10¹⁴-10¹⁵G). SGR will also produce some huge radiances with huge energy and long duration. This giant brilliance releases energy range of 10⁴⁴-10⁴⁷ Erge is one of the rarest energy explosion events in the universe known so far.

At present, people have little understanding of the specific details of the mechanism of the generation of giant rayons. This work has established a three-dimensional magnetic flux rope catastrophe model to study the magnetic energy storage and release process of magnetar giant rayons. Through the model, we can calculate whether magnetars can explode under different parameters, thereby obtaining a theoretical criterion for magnetars to produce giant rayons.

“The twisted spiral magnetic structure (also known as magnetic flux rope) on a magnetar is like a spring squeezed by external forces.” Dr. Meng Ying, the first author of the paper and the Yunnan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced. “We found through modeling and calculations that when the ratio of gravity to magnetic force acting on the magnetic flux rope is less than 0.48, the magnetic flux rope will suddenly break free from the constraints and eject violently like a spring compressed to the limit.”

This work analytically calculates the magnetic field distribution generated by circular magnetic flux ropes passing through the surface of neutron stars. Based on this, the equilibrium situation when it is subjected to the combined action of Lorentz force, magnetic tension and gravity is analyzed, and the stability of equilibrium when the magnetic field of the dipole in the background of neutron star is studied.

This study obtained a simple criterion for the necessary conditions for the loss of equilibrium to cause catastrophe, that is, when the characteristic parameter η = GMm/(R4B2)<0.48 (G is the Newtonian gravitational constant, M is the mass of the stellar, m is the mass of the projectile, R is the radius of the star, and B is the intensity of the dipole magnetic field), the system may experience equilibrium instability and cause a burst process.

This criterion gives the lower limit of the magnetic field generated by the magnetar’s giant rays. Combined with the relationship between the magnetic field and the rotation period of the neutron star, the theoretical parameter range of the magnetar’s giant rays on the period and period change rate chart is obtained, which is consistent with the observation results. In addition, this method can also be used in the future to apply the magnetic field burst process of other celestial bodies. Applying it to the sun, the theoretical upper limit of the mass of the projectile can be obtained is 1017 grams consistent with the observation.

Passionategeekz found that the relevant paper was published in the astrophysics journal “The Monthly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society” on May 9. The paper address is:
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf765

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