We propose a model of hard X-ray flares in protostars observed by ASCA satellite. Assuming that the dipole magnetic field of the protostar threads the protostellar disk, we carried out 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the disk-star interaction. The closed magnetic loops connecting the central star and the disk are twisted by the rotation of the disk. As the twist accumulates, magnetic loops expand and finally approach to the open field configuration. A current sheet is formed inside the expanding loops. In the presence of resistivity, magnetic reconnection takes place in the current sheet. Outgoing magnetic island and post flare loops are formed as a result of the reconnection. The time scale of this 'flare' is the order of the rotation period of the disk. The released magnetic energy partly goes into the thermal energy and heats up the flaring plasma up to 10 8 K. The length of the flaring loop is several times of the radius of the central star, consistent with observations. The speed of the hot plasmoid ejected by the reconnection is 200 − 400 km s −1 when the footpoint of the loop is at 0.03 AU from 1 M ⊙ protostar. The hot plasma outflow can explain the speed and mass flow rate of optical jets. Dense, cold, magnetically accelerated wind (v ∼ 150 − 250 km s −1 ) emanates from the surface of the disk along the partially open magnetic field lines threading the disk. This dense, cold wind may correspond to high velocity neutral winds.

Portions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document. Ion acceleration and direct ion heating in three-component magnetic reconnection

We carried out three-dimensional global resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the cooling instability in optically thin hot black hole accretion flows by assuming bremsstrahlung cooling. General relativistic effects are simulated by using the pseudo-Newtonian potential. Cooling instability grows when the density of the accretion disk becomes sufficiently large. We found that as the instability grows the accretion flow changes from an optically thin, hot, gas pressure-supported state (low/hard state) to a cooler, magnetically supported, quasi-steady state. During this transition, magnetic pressure exceeds the gas pressure because the disk shrinks in the vertical direction almost conserving the toroidal magnetic flux. Since further vertical contraction of the disk is suppressed by magnetic pressure, the cool disk stays in an optically thin, spectrally hard state. In the magnetically supported disk, the heating rate balances with the radiative cooling rate. The magnetically supported disk exists for time scale

Radiation spectra of supercritical black hole accretion flows are computed using a Monte Carlo method by postprocessing the results of axisymmetric radiation hydrodynamic simulations. We take into account thermal/bulk Comptonization, free-free absorption, and photon trapping. We found that a shock-heated region (∼10 8 K) appears at the funnel wall near the black hole where the supersonic inflow is reflected by the centrifugal barrier of the potential. Both thermal and bulk Comptonization significantly harden photon spectra although most of the photons upscattered above 40 keV are swallowed by the black hole due to the photon trapping. When the accretion rate onto the black hole isṀ2 , where L E is the Eddington luminosity, the spectrum has a power-law component which extends up to ∼10 keV by upscattering of photons in the shock-heated region. In higher mass accretion rates, the spectra roll over around 5 keV due to downscattering of the photons by cool electrons in the dense outflow surrounding the jet. Our results are consistent with the spectral features of ultraluminous X-ray sources, which typically show either a hard power-law component extending up to 10 keV or a rollover around 5 keV. We found that the spectrum of NGC 1313 X-2 is quite similar to the spectrum numerically obtained for high accretion rate2 ) source observed with low viewing angle (i = 10Our numerical results also demonstrate that the face-on luminosity of supercritically accreting stellar mass black holes (10 M ) can significantly exceed 10 40 erg s −1 .

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The central few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way host a massive black hole and exhibit very violent gas motion and high temperatures in molecular gas. The origin of these properties has been a mystery for the past four decades. Wide-field imaging of the (12)CO (rotational quantum number J = 1 to 0) 2.6-millimeter spectrum has revealed huge loops of dense molecular gas with strong velocity dispersions in the galactic center. We present a magnetic flotation model to explain that the formation of the loops is due to magnetic buoyancy caused by the Parker instability. The model has the potential to offer a coherent explanation for the origin of the violent motion and extensive heating of the molecular gas in the galactic center.

We present the results of three-dimensional global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Parker-shearing instability in a differentially rotating torus initially threaded by toroidal magnetic fields. An equilibrium model of a magnetized torus is adopted as an initial condition. When beta0=Pgas&solm0;Pmag approximately 1 at the initial state, magnetic flux buoyantly escapes from the disk and creates looplike structures similar to those in the solar corona. Inside the torus, the growth of nonaxisymmetric magnetorotational (or Balbus & Hawley) instability generates magnetic turbulence. Magnetic field lines are tangled on a small scale, but on a large scale they show low azimuthal wavenumber spiral structure. After several rotation periods, the system oscillates around a state with beta approximately 5. We found that magnetic pressure-dominated (beta<1) filaments are created in the torus. The volume filling factor of the region in which beta

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