SWIFT J195509+261406: Dramatic Flaring Activity from a New Galactic Magnetar

Abstract

Most of the transient sources that are detected in the gamma-ray sky are produced by extragalactic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, it is known that there are some other astronomical objects that can produce high-energy bursts within the Milky Way. SWIFT J195509+261406, just one degree off the Galactic plane, is one of them. It was discovered on the 10th July 2007 by the Swift satellite and was since then observable for a period of a fortnight. During this time SWIFT J195509+261406 experimented dramatic flaring activity that could be observed in near infrared, optical and X-rays. We gathered multi-wavelength observations of SWIFT J195509+261406 including optical, near infrared, millimeter and radio observations. Our dataset covers the time from 1 min after the burst onset to more than 4 months later. Following the initial burst in the gamma-ray band, we recorded more than 40 flaring episodes in the optical bands (reaching up to I _c ∼ 15) over a time span of 3 days, plus a faint infrared flare that was observed at late times. After this time, the source slowly faded away until it became undetectable. Using the observations compiled in this work we propose that this source is part of the magnetar family, linking soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars to dim isolated neutron stars.