Measuring the cooling curve of magnetar Swift J1822.3-1606

Magnetars have been observed to increase their flux output by several orders ofmagnitude in outbursts. Following outbursts, they cool on timescales of monthsto years. We propose to observe the magnetar Swift J1822.31606 using XMM as thesource approaches its quiescent state following the recent outburst in 2011. Wewill measure the flux and spectral properties of the source at two differentepochs during AO12 in order to constrain the form of its flux decay. We willtest a newly developed crustal cooling model and constrain the properties of themagnetar, such as the crust thickness and heat capacity, as well as the physicsof the outburst, such as the location of energy deposition. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]