Moderate re-brightening of the transient magnetar SGR 0501+4516
ATel #6000; M. Morii (RIKEN), T. Kohmura (Kogakuin Univ.), T. Sakamoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.), and N. Kawai (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
on 22 Mar 2014; 14:23 UT
Credential Certification: Mikio Morii (morii@hp.phys.titech.ac.jp)
Subjects: X-ray, Soft Gamma-ray Repeater
We observed the transient magnetar SGR 0501+4516 by Swift/XRT on
2014-03-16 (ObsID: 00033199001), and then found the flux enhancement
at 0.17 +- 0.01 c/s in the 0.3 - 10.0 keV band after background subtraction.
The XRT count rate of a previous observation on 2013-01-29 was 0.09 +- 0.02 c/s.
It is the first detection of the flux increase after the source became
in a quiescent state around early 2010.
Our observation might indicate a sign of re-activation of this source.
SGR 0501+4516 was discovered in August 2008 by typical SGR-like spiky short
X-ray bursts (GCN #8112, ATel #1676). After this episode, the source flux was monitored by Swift/XRT.
The peak flux on August 2008 was about 1.2 c/s. The gradual decay of the flux
was found in this monitor data. The minimum flux was 0.03 +- 0.01 c/s on 2013-01-21.
Here, all the fluxes are in the 0.3 - 10.0 keV band.
Further Swift/XRT observation of SGR 0501+4516 is planned.
