Anomalous X-ray pulsar explained

Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are an observational manifestation of magnetars—young, isolated, highly magnetized neutron stars. These energetic X-ray pulsars are characterized by slow rotation periods of ~2–12 seconds and large magnetic fields of ~10¹³–10¹⁵ gauss (1 to 100 gigateslas)., there were 12 confirmed and 2 candidate AXPs known.^[1] The identification of AXPs with magnetars was motivated by their similarity to soft gamma repeaters.

The AXP candidates and their estimated rotation period in seconds,, were:
	6.98
	6.45
	8.69
	11.0
	11.8
	6.97
	5.44
The second, fourth, and last names have been abbreviated.

Sources

• 1995A&A...299L..41V. On the nature of the 'anomalous' 6-s X-ray pulsars. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 299. L41. Van Paradijs. J.. Taam. R. E.. Van Den Heuvel. E. P. J.. 1995.
• 10.1063/1.50235. Magnetars. AIP Conference Proceedings. 366. 111. 1996. Duncan. Robert C.. Thompson. Christopher.
• 2003SciAm.288b..34K. Magnetars. Scientific American. 288. 2. 34. Kouveliotou. Chryssa. Duncan. Robert C.. Thompson. Christopher. 2003. 10.1038/scientificamerican0203-34. 12561456.

External links

• Meissner Effect in Quark Stars (University of Calgary)

Notes and References

1. http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~pulsar/magnetar/main.html SGR/AXP Online Catalog