Gravity seminar - Bennett Link Seminar

Neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, magnetars, produce gamma-ray flares with energies of 10^39 to 10^46 erg. The energy source must be the strong magnetic field, but how the energy is liberated remains an open question. I will argue that most of the energy cannot originate in the stellar interior, but must be released in the stellar magnetosphere. Quasi-periodic oscillations observed in giant flares have been interpreted as magneto-elastic oscillations of the neutron star. I will present a challenge to this interpretation.