# Precise Interplanetary Network Localization of a New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR1627-41

## 1 Introduction

There is good evidence that the three known soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are associated with supernova remnants (SNRs). SGR0525-66 appears to be in N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Cline et al. 1982), and SGR1806-20 (Atteia et al. 1987) in G10.0-0.3 (Kulkarni & Frail 1993; Kouveliotou et al. 1994; Kulkarni et al. 1994; Murakami et al. 1994). SGR1900+14 lies close to, although not within, G42.8+0.6 (Kouveliotou et al. 1994; Hurley et al. 1999a). The SGRs are believed to be magnetars, i.e. neutron stars with magnetic field strengths in excess of 10<sup>14</sup> G. In these objects, magnetic energy dominates rotational energy.

In this paper we present gamma-ray observations of a new source, SGR1627-41, first detected in 1998 June, whose repetition, time histories, energy spectra, and location are all consistent with the properties of the known SGRs. We present observations by the 3rd interplanetary network (IPN), consisting in this case of the gamma-ray burst experiment aboard the Ulysses spacecraft, the KONUS experiment aboard the WIND spacecraft, and the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and use them to derive a precise source location for SGR1627-41. The typical energy ranges for the experiments and the data considered here are 25-150, 50-200, and 25-100 keV, respectively. At the time of these observations, Ulysses was located $``$ 2900 light-seconds from earth while WIND was $``$ 3 light-seconds away; CGRO was in near-Earth orbit.

## 2 Observations

The first confirmed Ulysses observation of the new SGR was on 1998 June 17. The last was on 1998 July 12. In all, 36 events were observed by Ulysses and an instrument on at least one near-earth spacecraft, either KONUS-WIND or BATSE, and triangulation gave mutually consistent annuli. (Numerous other events were observed by BATSE alone, and numerous candidate events were also observed by a single instrument, either KONUS or Ulysses GRB, which could not be localized; we do not consider them here.) Each of the three instruments has various data-collecting modes which may be summarized as either “triggered” or “untriggered”. The time resolutions in triggered modes are as fine as 2 ms, while in untriggered modes, they may be as coarse as $``$ 1 s. Table 1 lists the bursts and the modes, and figure 1 shows a typical time history. When observed in triggered mode by Ulysses , almost all of the events considered here had durations $``$ 200 ms; as observed by BATSE, several events had durations of up to $``$ 2 s.

In principle, short events such as these present an ideal case for localization by triangulation, since the width of a triangulation annulus is proportional to the uncertainty in cross-correlating the time histories observed by a pair of spacecraft. However, two other factors must be considered. First, to obtain a small cross-correlation uncertainty, the event must be observed in triggered modes by Ulysses and another spacecraft; only 11 of the events in table 1 satisfy this criterion. (Intense activity from a repeating source tends to fill trigger memories, so that subsequent events can only be recorded in an untriggered mode.) Second, the proximity of the WIND and CGRO spacecraft results in triangulation annuli which intersect at grazing incidence for any given burst, resulting in a long, narrow error box. To reduce the length of the error box for this SGR, we have combined bursts from the first and last triggered mode observations, on June 17 and July 12. The slowly moving Ulysses \- Earth vector, which is approximately the center of the triangulation annulus, produces a shorter error box.

## 3 Results

Figure 2 shows a portion of the IPN error box, defined by the intersection of two $``$ 16 $`\mathrm{}`$ wide annuli. The corners of this $``$ 7.6 arcminute<sup>2</sup> error box are given in table 2. Strictly speaking, the curvature of the annuli does not allow the resulting error box to be defined by straight-line segments; for this reason, we also give the centers, radii, and widths of the annuli in table 3. Figure 2 also includes the 843 MHz radio contours of the Galactic supernova remnant G337.0-0.1, taken from the catalog of Whiteoak and Green (1996). Finally, figure 2 also shows the position of a BeppoSAX quiescent X-ray source believed to be the SGR counterpart (Woods et al. 1999). The intersection of the 3$`\sigma `$ IPN annuli with the 95% confidence error circle defines a $`2\mathrm{}\times 16\mathrm{}`$ error box whose area is $``$ 0.6 arcminutes<sup>2</sup>; the coordinates of this error box are given in table 4.

These two error boxes are consistent with, but considerably smaller than, the following locations previously determined for this SGR: 1) the BATSE error circle derived from four triggers (Kouveliotou et al. 1998a). (Based on this initial location, the source was named SGR 1627-41). 2) the initial IPN annulus (Hurley et al. 1998a) 3) the restriction of the initial IPN annulus to locations consistent with BATSE earth-limb occultation considerations (Woods et al. 1998) 4) a refined, but still preliminary IPN annulus (Hurley et al. 1998b), 5) the initial Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer All Sky Monitor (RXTE-ASM) error box (Smith and Levine 1998), and 6) the final RXTE-ASM error box (Smith et al. 1999)

## 4 Discussion

If we adopt as a working hypothesis that SGR1627-41 is a magnetar, and that magnetars have lifetimes $``$ 10,000 years (Thompson and Duncan 1995), then we would expect the IPN position to be coincident with that of a radio supernova remnant, whose observable lifetimes are $``$ 20,000 years (Braun, Goss, and Lyne 1989). Also, three SGRs are known to be quiescent soft X-ray point sources: SGR0525-66 (Rothschild, Kulkarni, & Lingenfelter 1994), SGR1806-20 (Murakami et al. 1994), and SGR1900+14 (Hurley et al. 1994, 1999b). With this in mind, we can then inquire how compelling the IPN/G337.0-0.1/BeppoSAX association is. We first calculate the probability that the 1.8$`\mathrm{°}`$ by 16$`\mathrm{}`$ IPN annulus intersects a SNR in the 843 MHz survey of the MOST catalog (Whiteoak and Green 1996)? A rigorously correct method to estimate this probability was presented by Kulkarni and Frail (1993), but a very simple argument can be used to derive an absolute lower limit. The MOST survey covered galactic coordinates $`245\mathrm{°}<\mathrm{l}<355\mathrm{°},\mathrm{b}<1.5\mathrm{°}`$. 73 SNRs with measured sizes are cataloged, and they occupy $``$ 0.022 of the total area surveyed. Thus in the limit where the error box is a point, the probability of a chance association would be $``$ 0.022. However, two factors will increase this substantially. First, given the fact that SGR1900+14 appears to be outside its supernova remnant (Hurley et al. 1999a), we would probably accept an SGR/SNR association where the error box lay outside the remnant, increasing the effective occupied area of the survey. Second, the method of Kulkarni and Frail (1993), which is more appropriate for the long, narrow IPN error box, would result in a higher probability.

We next ask what the probability is that the IPN error box will coincide with a quiescent soft X-ray source. One unidentified source with a 1 $`\mathrm{}`$ error radius was detected in the BeppoSAX observations (Woods et al. 1999), and the field of view was 28 $`\mathrm{}`$ in radius. Applying the method of Kulkarni and Frail (1993) gives a chance probability of 0.17. Thus the joint probability of the IPN/G337.0-0.1/BeppoSAX association is $`>`$0.004.

Fortunately, more data which can substantiate the IPN/X-ray source/SNR association are forthcoming. An Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics observation of the X-ray source is planned for 1999. This will allow us to confirm the suggested 6.47 s period, observed with a low statistical significance in the BeppoSAX data (Woods et al. 1999), and possibly derive the period derivative. A high spindown rate, as found for SGR1806-20 and SGR1900+14 (Kouveliotou et al. 1998b, 1999) would be a compelling argument that the source is indeed a magnetar associated with the SNR.

If this indeed proves to be the case, the transverse velocity of the magnetar can be estimated. The distance to G337.0-0.1 has been estimated to be as small as 5.8 kpc by Case and Bhattacharya (1998) based on a a new $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-D relation for supernova remnants, and as large as 11 kpc by Sarma et al. (1997) based on radio recombination lines. The displacement between the core of the remnant and the IPN/SAX error box is $``$1.3 $`\mathrm{}`$. From this, we obtain velocities between $``$200 and 2000 km/s for the smaller distance, and for assumed ages of 10,000 and 1000 y, consistent with the transverse velocities of the other three SGRs.

KH is grateful to JPL for Ulysses support under Contract 958056, and to NASA for Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory support under contract NAG 5-3811.