The transient bursting Anomalous X-ray Pulsar in Westelund 1

On 21st September 2006 an intense (10^40 erg/s) and short (20ms) burst wasdetected by the Swift BAT at a position consistent with that of the candidateanomalous Xray Pulsar CXO J16474552, discovered by Chandra in 2005. Swiftfollowup observations requested by our group began after only few hours fromthe event and found the source at a flux level of about 6x10^11 erg/scm^2, morethan 200 times brighter than the flux measured in 2005. Both the spectral andtiming properties of CXO J16474552 are drastically different from those of thepreburst observations. These findings proved unambiguously that CXO J16474552is indeed an AXP. The present proposal is aimed at following the evolution ofthe main parameters of the second confirmed bursting transient AXP. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]