Stochastic Electron Acceleration During the NIR and X-ray Flares in Sagittarius A*

Siming Liu(1), Fulvio Melia(2,3), and Vahé Petrosian(1,4)


(1) Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
(2)Physics Department and Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
(3) Sir Thomas Lyle Fellow and Miegunyah Fellow.
(4) Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

Paper: ApJ in press

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0506151


Abstract:

Recent near-IR (NIR) and X-ray observations of Sagittarius A*'s spectrum have yielded several strong constraints on the transient energizing mechanism, justifying a re-examination of the stochastic acceleration model proposed previously for these events. We here demonstrate that the new results are fully consistent with the acceleration of electrons via the transit-time damping process. But more importantly, these new NIR and X-ray flares now can constrain the source size, the gas density, the magnetic field, and the wave energy density in the turbulent plasma. Future simultaneous multi-wavelength observations with good spectral information will, in addition, allow us to study their temporal evolution, which will eventually lead to an accurate determination of the behavior of the plasma just minutes prior to its absorption by the black hole.


Preprints available from the authors at liusm@stanford.edu , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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