Hard X-ray Emission from Magnetars : A Case Study for Simbol X

TL;DR

This paper discusses how Simbol X observations can improve understanding of hard X-ray emissions from magnetars, aiding in spectral analysis and flux variation studies.

Contribution

It presents simulated observations with Simbol X demonstrating its potential to clarify spectral components of magnetars.

Findings

Simbol X can disentangle spectral components in magnetars.

Simbol X will improve understanding of flux variations.

Simbol X enhances spectral modeling above 20 keV.

Abstract

The magnetar model involves an isolated neutron star with a very high magnetic field (B~10^14-10^15 G), and is invoked to explain the emission processes of two classes of sources, the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs). Five of them have been recently identified to be persistent sources in the hard X-ray band (20-200 keV). AXPs, in particular, present the hardest known persistent spectra in the hard X/soft gamma-ray energy range. The broad band modeling of their spectra still suffers from the non-simultaneity of the observations and from a lack of sensitivity above 20 keV. We present the Simbol X simulated observations of these objects and show that that this mission could surely help to disentangle the contribution of the different spectral components, and to understand how they contribute to the secular flux variations observed in these sources.