FAST VARIABILITY AND MILLIMETER/IR FLARES IN GRMHD MODELS OF Sgr A* FROM STRONG-FIELD GRAVITATIONAL LENSING
- Steward Observatory and Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Broida Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
- Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
We explore the variability properties of long, high-cadence general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations across the electromagnetic spectrum using an efficient, GPU-based radiative transfer algorithm. We focus on both standard and normal evolution (SANE) and magnetically arrested disk (MAD) simulations with parameters that successfully reproduce the time-averaged spectral properties of Sgr A* and the size of its image at 1.3 mm. We find that the SANE models produce short-timescale variability with amplitudes and power spectra that closely resemble those inferred observationally. In contrast, MAD models generate only slow variability at lower flux levels. Neither set of models shows any X-ray flares, which most likely indicates that additional physics, such as particle acceleration mechanisms, need to be incorporated into the GRMHD simulations to account for them. The SANE models show strong, short-lived millimeter/infrared (IR) flares, with short (≲1 hr) time lags between the millimeter and IR wavelengths, that arise from the combination of short-lived magnetic flux tubes and strong-field gravitational lensing near the horizon. Such events provide a natural explanation for the observed IR flares with no X-ray counterparts.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518791
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 812, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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