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Paper: Long Duration GRBs and the Birth of Magnetars
Volume: 406, Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows: ASTRONUM - 2008
Page: 73
Authors: Bucciantini, N.
Abstract: We present recent relativistic MHD simulations of the interaction of a magnetized outflow produced by a proto-magnetar with a surrounding stellar envelope, in the first ∼10 seconds after core collapse. The wind blows inside a cavity created by the outgoing supernova shock. A strong toroidal magnetic field builds up in the wind bubble that is at first inertially confined by the progenitor star. This drives a jet out along the polar axis of the star, even though the star and the magnetar wind are each “spherically symmetric”. The jet has the properties needed to produce a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB). At ∼5−10 s after core bounce, the jet has escaped the host star and the Lorentz factor of the material in the jet at large radii ∼1011 cm is similar to that in the magnetar wind near the source. Most of the spindown power of the central magnetar escapes via the relativistic jet.
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