Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are an observational manifestation of magnetarsâÂÂyoung, isolated, highly magnetized neutron stars. These energetic X-ray pulsars are characterized by slow rotation periods of ~2âÂÂ12 seconds and large magnetic fields of ~10<sup>13</sup>âÂÂ10<sup>15</sup> gauss (1 to 100 gigateslas). , there were 12 confirmed and 2 candidate AXPs known. The identification of AXPs with magnetars was motivated by their similarity to soft gamma repeaters.