Magnetars are neutron stars with exceptionally strong dipole magnetic fields which are observed to display a range of x-ray flaring behavior, but the flaring mechanism is not well understood. The third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo extended from April 1, 2019 to March 27, 2020, and contained x-ray flares from known magnetar SGR 1935+2154, as well as the newly-discovered magnetar, Swift J1818-1607. We search for gravitational waves coincident with these magnetar flares with minimally modeled, coherent searches which specifically target both short-duration gravitational waves produced by excited f-modes in the magnetar’s core, as well as long-duration gravitational waves motivated by the Quasi-Periodic Oscillations observed in the tails of giant flares. In this talk, we report on the methods and sensitivity estimates of there searches, and the astrophysical implications.

The physical origin of Type-I (hydrogen-less) superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I), whose luminosities are 10 to 500 times higher than normal core-collapse supernovae, remains still unknown. Thanks to their brightness, SLSNe-I would be useful probes of distant Universe. For the power source of the light curves of SLSNe-I, radioactive-decays, magnetars, and circumstellar interactions have been proposed, although no definitive conclusions have been reached yet. Since most of light curve studies have been based on simplified semi-analytic models, we have constructed multi-color light curve models by means of detailed radiation hydrodynamical calculations for various mass of stars including very massive ones and large amount of mass loss. We compare the rising time, peak luminosity, width, and decline rate of the model light curves with observations of SLSNe-I and obtain constraints on their progenitors and explosion mechanisms. We particularly pay attention to the recently reported double peaks of the light curves. We discuss how to discriminate three models, relevant models parameters, their evolutionary origins, and implications for the early evolution of the Universe.

Assuming that the timescale of the magnetic field decay is approximately equal to that of the stellar cooling via neutrino emission, we obtain a one-to-one relationship between the effective surface thermal temperature and the inner temperature. The ratio of the effective neutrino luminosity to the effective X-ray luminosity decreases with decaying magnetic field.

We propose that a magnetar could be formed during the core collapse of massive stars or coalescence of two normal neutron stars, through collecting and inheriting the magnetic fields magnified by hyperaccreting disk. After the magnetar is born, its dipole magnetic fields in turn have a major influence on the following accretion. The decay of its toroidal field can fuel the persistent X-ray luminosity of either an SGR or AXP; however the decay of only the poloidal field is insufficient to do so.