Statistical analysis on X-ray flares from the nucleus and HST-1 knot in the M87 jet

Abstract

The statistical properties of X-ray flares from two separate locations (nucleus and HST-1) in the M87 jet are investigated to reveal the physical origin of the flares. We analyse the archival \textit{Chandra} data for M87, and identify 14 flares in the nucleus and 9 flares in HST-1. The peak intensity ($I_{\mathrm{P}}$) and the flaring duration time ($T_{\mathrm{fl}}$) for each flare are obtained. It is found that the distributions of both $I_{\mathrm{P}}$ and $T_{\mathrm{fl}}$ for the nucleus obey a power-law form with a similar index. A similar result is also obtained for HST-1, and no significant inconsistency between the nucleus and HST-1 is found for the indices. Similar to solar X-ray flares, the power-law distributions of the flare event parameters can be well explained by a self-organized criticality (SOC) system, which are triggered by magnetic reconnection. Our results suggest that the flares from nucleus and HST-1 are possibly triggered by magnetic reconnection process. The consistent indices for the distributions of $I_{\mathrm{P}}$ and $T_{\mathrm{fl}}$ in the CORE and HST-1 indicate that the dimensions of the energy dissipation of the magnetic reconnection is identical in the two regions. A strong correlation between the flares in the two regions also suggests a similar physical origin for the flares.

arXiv comment10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (30)

• Relativistic Reconnection: an Efficient Source of Non-Thermal Particles
• Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO):Overview
• The supermassive black hole of M87 and the kinematics of its associated gaseous disk
• Instability of toroidal magnetic field in jets and plerions
• Relativistic Jets Shine through Shocks or Magnetic Reconnection?
• Generating artificial light curves: Revisited and updated
• The Black Hole Mass, Stellar M/L, and Dark Halo in M87
• Flexible and Scalable Methods for Quantifying Stochastic Variability in the Era of Massive Time-Domain Astronomical Data Sets
• A High Resolution X-ray Image of the Jet in M 87
• Chandra X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of the M87 Jet and Nucleus
• The Outburst of HST-1 in the M87 Jet
• Efficient Production of High-energy Nonthermal Particles during Magnetic Reconnection in a Magnetically-dominated Ion-Electron Plasma
• Variability Timescales in the M87 Jet: Signatures of E-Squared Losses, Discovery of a Quasi-period in HST-1, and the Site of TeV Flaring
• Self-organized criticality in X-ray flares of gamma-ray burst afterglows
• Comprehensive study of the X-ray flares from gamma-ray bursts observed by Swift
• Flaring X-ray Emission from HST-1, a Knot in the M87 Jet
• A Statistical Fractal-Diffusive Avalanche Model of a Slowly-Driven Self-Organized Criticality System
• Spatial growth of current-driven instability in relativistic rotating jets and the search for magnetic reconnection
• Month-Timescale Optical Variability in the M87 Jet
• Determining the Dominant Acceleration Mechanism during Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Large-scale Systems
• Emitting electrons spectra and acceleration processes in the jet of Mrk 421: from low state to giant flare state
• Statistics of X-ray flares of Sagittarius A*: evidence for solar-like self-organized criticality phenomenon
• X-ray Radiation Mechanisms and Beaming Effect of Hot Spots and Knots in Active Galactic Nuclear Jets
• The State of Self-Organized Criticality of the Sun During the Last 3 Solar Cycles. I. Observations
• An Experiment to Locate the Site of TeV Flaring in M87
• The energy distribution of relativistic electrons in the kilo-parsec scale jet of M87 with Chandra
• Universal Behavior of X-ray Flares from Black Hole Systems
• Statistical analysis on XMM-Newton X-ray flares of Mrk 421: distributions of peak flux and flaring time duration
• Parameter constraints in a near-equipartition model with multi-frequency \emph{NuSTAR}, \emph{Swift} and \emph{Fermi-LAT} data from 3C 279
• A Systematic Chandra study of Sgr A${}^{\star }$: II. X-ray flare statistics

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2018 EHT Campaign including a Very High Energy Flaring Episode
• The year-scale X-ray variations in the core of M87
• The Study of X-Ray Flux Variability of M87
• Energy and waiting time distributions of FRB 121102 observed by FAST