A Comprehensive Timing Analysis of Individual Pulses in X-Ray Bursts from SGR J0501+4516

Abstract

The pulses in X-ray-burst (XRB) light curves from soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are generally thought to arise from magnetic crustal fractures or magnetic reconnection, reflecting the evolution of the energy release process in magnetars. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive timing analysis of 27 XRBs from SGR J0501+4156 detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on board Fermi. Utilizing a improved pulse-finding algorithm, we identify a total of 95 pulses and fit them using multiple FRED functions to obtain pulse-shape parameters based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. We calculate the minimum variability timescales (MVTs) of the XRBs based on the shortest pulse; the distribution of MVTs follows a log-Gaussian function with a mean of 7.22 − 2.11 + 2.93 ms (1σ). The distributions of rise time, decay time, waiting time, width, skewness, and peakedness all follow the log-Gaussian function, and multiple power-law dependencies are observed between them; for example, a power-law positive correlation between decay time and rise time with 4.7σ, and a power-law negative correlation between pulse width and peakedness with 6.8σ. Besides, there is a positive correlation with 3.7σ between the number of pulses and burst duration. Our findings favor a magnetospheric origin, and some similarities with gamma-ray bursts imply that they have similar radiation mechanisms, e.g., magnetic reconnection processes.