Energy injection from the central magnetar and its effect on the GRB afterglow

Huang, Yongfeng

A shallow decay plateau phase has been observed in the X-ray afterglow of many GRBs. It is found that the luminosity and the duration of the plateau are closely correlated with the isotropic gamma-ray energy release of the GRB itself. The correlation was interestingly confirmed in our recent study based on a much expanded sample. It is argued that the correlation strongly supports magnetars as the central engine of these GRBs.