Title: Target of Opportunity Observations of Active Soft Gamma Repeaters

Title: Target of Opportunity Observations of Active Soft Gamma Repeaters

Proposal ID: 0120016
Subject category: Compact Object
Principal investigator: Hurley
Institute: UC Berkeley

Abstract

The soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are suspected to be magnetars, objects in which the magnetic field energy dominates all other energy sources, including rotation. SGRs go through phases of intense activity, during which they may emit hundreds of bursts within a period of weeks or so. During those periods, they exhibit properties which are quite different from their quiescent properties. Their strong magnetic fields are probably responsible for these changes, and accordingly, it is interesting to study them intensely at these times. We propose two ToO observations of any of the known, or of any newly discovered SGRs during their active phases. For clarity, we have filled out one observation form for each of the known SGRs and for one unknown SGR. Our total request, however, is for just TWO ToO's.