PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM

Thursday, February 1, 2007
4:10 p.m.

1415 Biomedical & Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 3:30 pm in Rm. 1400 BPS Bldg


Speaker: Victoria M. Kaspi
         McGill University

Title:   Magnetars

Abstract:

The nature of an unusual class of cosmic X-ray source, dubbed "Anomalous
X-ray Pulsars," has been a mystery since 1982, when the first example was
discovered.  In this talk, I will review the observational evidence that
unambiguously links them with another equally exotic class of astrophysical
object, the explosive "Soft Gamma Repeaters."  The evidence to date strongly
supports the picture that both are "magnetars:" isolated young neutron stars
having surface magnetic fields ~1000 times greater than those in conventional
neutron stars, the largest magnetic fields in the known Universe.  I will
also discuss their possible place in the neutron star "zoo," and speculate
on their connection with otherwise conventional but somewhat high-magnetic
field radio pulsars.