5–10 Jul 2021
Europe/Rome timezone

Fermi-GBM and Swift-BAT detection of an extragalactic magnetar giant flare

6 Jul 2021, 06:30
20m
Invited talk in the parallel session Unusual and New Types of Gamma-ray Bursts Unusual and New Types of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Speaker

Peter Veres (University of Alabama in Huntsville)

Description

We present the observations of the first unambiguous magnetar giant flare from outside of our galactic neighborhood. Initially, GRB 200415A was identified as a short GRB, but upon further investigation and observations from additional instruments, we concluded this event was a giant flare from a magnetar located in the Sculptor galaxy, 3.5 Mpc away. The GBM lightcurve shows very fast (shorter than 0.1 ms) variability, which is unprecedented among both magnetar giant flare and GRB observations. Based on the MeV range photons that Fermi-GBM detected, we find proof of relativistic expansion. We will show the detailed data analysis, the fast spectral evolution and the interpretation of this unique event.

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