A classification scheme for magnetars

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asna.201312035

We investigate cumulative burst occurrence trends of five soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and introduce an indicative mea-sure for the duration of their outburst phases. We find a clear distinction between the durations of the active episodes of persistent and transient magnetars: The outburst episodes of the persistent sources are significantly longer (less than or similar to 100 days) than those of transient sources (less than or similar to 10 days). We also investigate burst-induced changes in the radiative behavior of transient sources and suggest a mechanism for the constant flux trend seen in the early phases of the outburst of SGRs with low burst rates.