1992

Magnetar

• Classical bursts of gamma rays,
• soft gamma repeaters,
• and anomalous X-ray pulsars
• could be magnetars—
• neutron stars with extremely
• high magnetic fields,
• rapid rotations,
• and susceptibility to starquakes.

Soft gamma repeater

• Not a normal burst of gamma rays,
• this object emitted photons closer
• to the range of X-rays,
• and repeated.
• Chryssa Kouveliotou calculated
• that each burst slowed the object’s rotation
• by just a tiny bit
• and showed the object was likely to be
• a magnetar.

Altering the quantum vacuum

• A magnetic field strong enough
• polarizes the vacuum,
• rendering it birefringent,
• splits and merges photons,
• distorts and magnifies images,
• and dramatically increases
• the density of virtual
• electron-positron pairs
• so that the vacuum
• becomes unstable.
• When your atoms stretch into narrow cylinders
• and your molecules look like thin polymer chains,
• you are too dead to enjoy the odd effects.