1740007

There is good evidence that Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) are magnetars objects in which the magnetic field energy dominates all other energy sources including rotation. This implies that they possess the strongest known magnetic fields in the universe (10^13-15 G). Magnetars go through phases of intense activity during which they may emit a few up to hundreds of bursts within a period of weeks to months and at the same time they can increase their persistent flux by more than two orders of magnitude. During those periods they exhibit properties which are quite different from those in quiescence. Their strong magnetic fields are probably mainly responsible for these changes and accordingly it is interesting to study them intensively at those times. In addition the discovery of transient magnetars has opened a new perspective in the field. This proposal is aimed at gathering new insights on the physics of magnetars through the study of the multi-band spectrum of the initial phase of their outbursts. We request four 170 ks ToO INTEGRAL and 20 ks of coordinated Swift/XRT observations to be triggered by an X-ray flux increase or burst activation from known and new magnetars. [truncated! Please see actual data for full text]