X-ray flares have routinely been observed from the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A$^star$ (Sgr A$^star$), at our Galactic center. The nature of these flares remains largely unclear, despite of many theoretical models. In this paper, we study t
he statistical properties of the Sgr A$^star$ X-ray flares, by fitting the count rate (CR) distribution and the structure function (SF) of the light curve with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. With the 3 million second textit{Chandra} observations accumulated in the Sgr A$^star$ X-ray Visionary Project, we construct the theoretical light curves through Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the $2-8$ keV X-ray light curve can be decomposed into a quiescent component with a constant count rate of $sim6times10^{-3}~$count s$^{-1}$ and a flare component with a power-law fluence distribution $dN/dEpropto E^{-alpha_{rm E}}$ with $alpha_{rm E}=1.65pm0.17$. The duration-fluence correlation can also be modelled as a power-law $Tpropto E^{alpha_{rm ET}}$ with $alpha_{rm ET} < 0.55$ ($95%$ confidence). These statistical properties are consistent with the theoretical prediction of the self-organized criticality (SOC) system with the spatial dimension $S = 3$. We suggest that the X-ray flares represent plasmoid ejections driven by magnetic reconnection (similar to solar flares) in the accretion flow onto the black hole.
We calculate inclusive hadron productions in pA collisions in the small-x saturation formalism at one-loop order. The differential cross section is written into a factorization form in the coordinate space at the next-to-leading order, while the naiv
e form of the convolution in the transverse momentum space does not hold. The rapidity divergence with small-x dipole gluon distribution of the nucleus is factorized into the energy evolution of the dipole gluon distribution function, which is known as the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation. Furthermore, the collinear divergences associated with the incoming parton distribution of the nucleon and the outgoing fragmentation function of the final state hadron are factorized into the splittings of the associated parton distribution and fragmentation functions, which allows us to reproduce the well-known DGLAP equation. The hard coefficient function, which is finite and free of divergence of any kind, is evaluated at one-loop order.
We demonstrate the QCD factorization for inclusive hadron production in $pA$ collisions in the saturation formalism at one-loop order, with explicit calculation of both real and virtual gluon radiation diagrams. The collinear divergences associated w
ith the incoming parton distribution of the nucleon and the outgoing fragmentation function of the final state hadron, as well as the rapidity divergence with small-$x$ dipole gluon distribution of the nucleus are factorized into the splittings of the associated parton distribution and fragmentation functions and the energy evolution of the dipole gluon distribution function. The hard coefficient function is evaluated at one-loop order, and contains no divergence.
Episodic ejection of plasma blobs have been observed in many black hole systems. While steady, continuous jets are believed to be associated with large-scale open magnetic fields, what causes the episodic ejection of blobs remains unclear. Here by an
alogy with the coronal mass ejection on the Sun, we propose a magnetohydrodynamical model for episodic ejections from black holes associated with the closed magnetic fields in an accretion flow. Shear and turbulence of the accretion flow deform the field and result in the formation of a flux rope in the disk corona. Energy and helicity are accumulated and stored until a threshold is reached. The system then loses its equilibrium and the flux rope is thrust outward by the magnetic compression force in a catastrophic way. Our calculations show that for parameters appropriate for the black hole in our Galactic center, the plasmoid can attain relativistic speeds in about 35 minutes.
We investigate the X-ray origin in FRIs using the multi-waveband high resolution data of eight FR I sources, which have very low Eddington ratios. We fit their multi-waveband spectrum using a coupled accretion-jet model. We find that X-ray emission i
n the source with the highest L_X (~1.8*10^-4 L_Edd) is from the advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF). Four sources with moderate L_X(~several*10^-6 L_Edd) are complicated. The X-ray emission of one FR I is from the jet, and the other three is from the sum of the jet and ADAF. The X-ray emission in the three least luminous sources (L_X<1.0*10^-6L_Edd) is dominated by the jet. These results roughly support the predictions of Yuan and Cui(2005) where they predict that when the X-ray luminosity of the system is below a critical value, the X-radiation will not be dominated by the emission from the ADAF any longer, but by the jet. We also find that the accretion rates in four sources must be higher than the Bondi rates, which implies that other fuel supply (e.g., stellar winds) inside the Bondi radius should be important.
