Abstract
NEUTRON stars are believed to have solid crusts, which may exhibit tectonic activity analogous to earthquakes on Earth. These 'starquakes' have been invoked to explain several phenomena associated with neutron stars, such as the flashes of low-energy γ-rays from soft γ-ray repeaters1,2 (SGRs), and abrupt changes ('glitches') observed in the spin periods of some pulsars3,4. Here we show that SGR events and earthquakes share four distinctive statistical properties: power-law energy distributions, log-symmetric waiting time distributions, strong positive correlations between waiting times of successive events, and weak or no correlations between intensities and waiting times. These statistical similarities, together with the fact that the crustal energy liberated by starquakes is sufficient in principle to fuel the soft γ-ray flashes, suggest that SGRs are indeed powered by star-quakes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Thompson, C. & Duncan, R. C. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 275, 255–300 (1995).
Norris, J. P., Hertz, P., Wood, K. S. & Kouveliotou, C. Astrophys. J. 366, 240–252 (1991).
Baym, G. & Pines, D. Ann. Phys. 66, 816–835 (1971).
Link, B. & Epstein, R. I. Astrophys. J. 457, 844–854 (1996).
Pandharipande, V. R., Pines, D. & Smith, R. A. Astrophys. J. 208, 550–566 (1976).
Ruderman, M. Astrophys. J. 382, 587–593 (1991).
Laros, J. G. et al. Astrophys. J. 320, L111–L115 (1987).
Atteia, J.-L. et al. Astrophys. J. 320, L105–L110 (1987).
Kouveliotou, C. et al. Astrophys. J. 322, L21–L25 (1987).
Kulkarni, S. R. & Frail, D. A. Nature 365, 33–35 (1993).
Murakami, T. et al. Nature 368, 127–129 (1994).
Kouveliotou, C. et al. Nature 368, 125–127 (1994).
Fenimore, E. E., Laros, J. G. & Ulmer, A. Astrophys. J. 432, 742–752 (1994).
Mazets, E. P., Golenetskii, S. V., IIinskii, V. N., Aptekar, R. L. & Guryan, Yu. A. Nature 282, 587–589 (1979).
Fenimore, E. E., Klebesadel, R. W. & Laros, J. G. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Podsiadlowski, P., Rees, M. J. & Ruderman, M. A. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 273, 755–771 (1995).
Flowers, E. & Ruderman, M. A. Astrophys. J. 215, 302–310 (1977).
Duncan, R. C. & Thompson, C. Astrophys. J. 392, L9–L13 (1992).
Gutenberg, B. & Richter, C. F. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 46, 105–145 (1956).
Nishenko, S. P. & Buland, R. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 77, 1382–1399 (1987).
McNalley, K. C. & Minster, J. B. J. geophys. Res. 86, 4955–4959 (1981).
Pepke, S. L., Carlson, J. M. & Shaw, B. E. J. geophys. Res. 99, 6769–6788 (1994).
Hurley, K. J., McBreen, B., Pabbette, M. & Steel, S. Astr. Astrophys. 288, L49–L52 (1994).
Vidale, J. E., Ellsworth, W. L., Cole, A. & Marone, C. Nature 368, 624–626 (1994).
Lewin, W. H. G. et al. Astrophys. J. 319, 893–901 (1987).
Gottwald, M., Haberd, F., Parmar, A. N. & White, N. E. Astrophys. J. 323, 575–581 (1987).
van Paradijs, J. et al. Astr. Astrophys. 192, 147–152 (1988).
Tsuboi, C. Proc. Jap. Acad. 41, 392–397 (1965).
Preliminary Determination fo Epicenter Catalogs (US Geologic Survey, 1989–1994).
Nava, S. J. & Smith, R. B. Earthquake Catalog for the Yeltowstone National Park Region, January 1,1991–December 31,1991 (Univ. Utah Seismograph Stations, Salt Lake City, 1993); http:// www.seis.utah.edu/Reports/YP1973–95Catalog.
Nava, S. J. et al. Earthquake Catalog for the Utah Region, January 1, 1986–December 31, 1988 (Univ. Utah Seismograph Stations, Salt Lake City, 1993); http://www.seis.utah.edu/ Reports/UtahEqCatl962–93.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cheng, B., Epstein, R., Guyer, R. et al. Earthquake-like behaviour of soft γ-ray repeaters. Nature 382, 518–520 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/382518a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/382518a0
- Springer Nature Limited