The soft gamma repeater SGR 1900+14 entered a new phase of activity in 2001 April initiated by the intermediate flare recorded on April 18. Ten days following this flare, we discovered an abrupt increase in the source flux between consecutive Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) orbits. This X-ray flux excess decayed over the next several minutes and was subsequently linked to a high fluence burst from SGR 1900+14 recorded by other spacecraft (Ulysses and Wind/Konus) while the SGR was Earth-occulted for RXTE. We present here spectral and temporal analysis of both the burst of April 28 and the long X-ray tail following it. We find strong evidence of an exclusively thermal X-ray tail in this event and bring this evidence to bear on other bursts and flares from SGR 1900+14 that have shown extended X-ray excesses (e.g., 1998 August 29). We include in this comparison a discussion of the physical origins of SGR bursts and extended X-ray tails.

No abstract

The Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR 1900+14, entered a new phase of activity in April 2001 initiated by the intermediate flare recorded on April 18. Ten days following this flare, we discovered an abrupt increase in the source flux between consecutive Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer RXTE orbits. This X-ray flux excess decayed over the next several minutes and was subsequently linked to a high fluence burst from SGR 1900+14 recorded by other spacecraft (Ulysses and Wind/Konus) while the SGR was Earth-occulted for RXTE. We present here spectral and temporal analysis of both the burst of 28 April and the long X-ray tail following it. We find strong evidence of an exclusively thermal X-ray tail in this event and bring this evidence to bear on other bursts and flares from SGR 1900+14 that have shown extended X-ray excesses (e.g. 1998 August 29). We include in this comparison a discussion of the physical origins of SGR bursts and extended X-ray tails.

The 2nd and 3rd order nonlinear microwave response of a superconducting YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 thin film resonator was synchronously measured using three input tones. This technique permits the local measurement, and hence mapping, of intermodulation distortion (IMD) inside the resonator. 2nd and 3rd order IMD measured with a fixed probe relaxed in remarkably different ways after the removal of a static magnetic field. The 2nd order IMD relaxed by two different magnetic processes, a fast process that appears related to bulk remanent magnetization, and a slow process that fits the description of Bean and Livingston. The 3rd order IMD relaxes by only one process which is distinct from the two processes controlling 2nd order relaxation.

The microwave induced breakdown of N 2 gas in microgaps was modeled using the collision frequency between electrons and neutral molecules and the effective electric field concept. Low pressure breakdown at the threshold electric field occurs outside the gap, but at high pressures it is found to occur inside the microgap with a large threshold breakdown electric field corresponding to a very large electron oscillation amplitude. Three distinct pressure regimes are apparent in the microgap breakdown: a low pressure multipactor branch, a mid-pressure Paschen branch, both of which occur in the space outside the microgap, and a high pressure diffusion-drift branch, which occurs inside the microgap. The Paschen and diffusion-drift branches are divided by a sharp transition and each separately fits the collision frequency model. There is evidence that considerable electron loss to the microgap faces accompanies the diffusion-drift branch in microgaps.