# The effect of X-ray dust-scattering on a bright burst from the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408

## TL;DR

This study analyzes a bright magnetar burst and its X-ray tail, demonstrating that dust scattering significantly contributes to the tail's observed emission, with implications for interpreting similar phenomena in other magnetar bursts.

## Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of dust scattering effects on X-ray tails from magnetar bursts, highlighting its importance in understanding observed emissions.

## Key findings

- Most of the X-ray tail can be explained by dust scattering.
- Dust scattering accounts for the tail except in the first 20-30 seconds.
- Other magnetar X-ray tails may also be influenced by dust scattering.

## Abstract

A bright burst, followed by an X-ray tail lasting ~10 ks, was detected during an XMM-Newton observation of the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 carried out on 2009 February 3. The burst, also observed by SWIFT/BAT, had a spectrum well fit by the sum of two blackbodies with temperatures of ~4 keV and 10 keV and a fluence in the 0.3-150 keV energy range of ~1e-5 erg/cm2. The X-ray tail had a fluence of ~4e-8 erg/cm2. Thanks to the knowledge of the distances and relative optical depths of three dust clouds between us and 1E 1547.0-5408, we show that most of the X-rays in the tail can be explained by dust scattering of the burst emission, except for the first ~20-30 s. We point out that other X-ray tails observed after strong magnetar bursts may contain a non-negligible contribution due to dust scattering.