X-ray flashes powered by the spindown of long-lived neutron stars

Understand

X-ray flashes (XRFs) are a class of high-energy transients whose nature is still open to question.

• Similar in many aspects to common gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), their strong X-ray emission is accompanied by very low or absent emission in the gamma-ray band.
• Despite this key difference, a number of indications have consolidated the idea that XRFs and GRBs share a common origin, including a number of potential XRF/supernova associations and the consistency of some XRFs with the Amati relation for long GRBs.
• However, the difficulties in explaining XRFs as off-axis or intrinsically weak GRBs still cast doubts on this interpretation.