Soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars as highly magnetized white dwarfs

TL;DR

This paper proposes that soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars are best explained as highly magnetized white dwarfs, which can account for observed energies without invoking additional energy sources.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that B-WDs can explain SGRs/AXPs energies, challenging the neutron star model and aligning with Chandrasekhar's theory.

Findings

B-WDs can produce sufficient rotational energy for SGRs/AXPs.

B-WDs' magnetic fields and radii match observed properties.

Predicted UV luminosity of B-WDs is within observational limits.

Abstract

We show that the soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) can be explained as recently proposed highly magnetized white dwarfs (B-WDs). The radius and magnetic field of B-WDs are perfectly adequate to explain energies in SGRs/AXPs as the rotationally powered energy. While the highly magnetized neutron stars require an extra, observationally not well established yet, source of energy, the magnetized white dwarfs, yet following Chandrasekhar's theory (C-WDs), exhibit large ultra-violet luminosity which is observationally constrained from a strict upper limit.