KONUS-WIND OBSERVATIONS OF THE NEW SOFT GAMMA-RAY REPEATER SGR 0501+4516

In 2008 August, the new soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 0501+4516 was discovered by Swift. The source was soon confirmed by several groups in space-and ground-based multi-wavelength observations. In this Letter, we report the analysis of five short bursts from the recently discovered soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR), detected with the Konus Wind gamma-ray burst spectrometer. Properties of the time histories of the observed events, as well as results of multichannel spectral analysis, both in the 20-300 keV energy range, show, that the source exhibits itself as a typical SGR. The bursts durations are less than or similar to 0.75 s and their spectra above 20 keV can be fitted by an optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung (OTTB) model with kT(OTTB) of 20-40 keV. The spectral evolution is observed, which resembles the SGR 1627-41 bursts, where a strong hardness-intensity correlation was noticed in the earlier Konus-Wind observations. The peak energy fluxes of all five events are comparable to the highest of those for known SGRs, so a less distant source is implied, consistent with the determined Galactic anticenter direction. Supposing the young supernova remnant HB9 (at the distance of 1.5 kpc) as a natal environment of the source, the peak luminosities of the bursts are estimated to be (2-5) x 10(40) erg s(-1). The values of the total energy release, given the same assumptions, amount to (0.6-6)x10(39) erg. These estimations of both parameters are typical for short SGR bursts.