Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of SGR and AXP Environments

Details Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of SGR and AXP Environments Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of SGR and AXP Environments

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20913101w&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #131.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

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Scientific paper

Both Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) are thought to be manifestations of magnetars, i.e. neutron stars with ultrahigh magnetic fields. However, the specific physical characteristics that differentiate the two classes of objects remain unclear. We now also know of a small sample of radio pulsars with magnetic field strengths approaching or overlapping those of the AXPs, but they do not display the same type of high energy properties. This raises the question why some neutron stars are "ordinary" radio pulsars, while others are X-ray and gamma-ray emitting magnetars. It has been suggested that magnetars have more massive progenitors than radio pulsars, and/or that the environment in which they form might influence the type of phenomena the resulting magnetar displays. Several of the AXPs appear to be associated with supernova remnants, while embedded clusters of massive stars have been found in the immediate vicinity of three SGRs. Since both AXPs and SGRs are distributed close to the Galactic plane, high extinction makes studies in the optical difficult. We will present results from our Spitzer Space Telescope program aimed at characterizing the environment in which these objects form. We will describe the detection of diffuse cluster emission, evidence for mass loss events of the progenitor star and the mid-IR SEDs of sources surrounding the magnetars.
This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech.

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