Modeling mm- to X-ray flare emission from sagittarius A

Context. We report on new modeling results based on the mm- to X-ray emission of the SgrA* counterpart associated with the massive ∼4×10⁶ Mȯ black hole at the Galactic Center.Aims. We investigate the physical processes responsible for the variable emission from SgrA*. Methods. Our modeling is based on simultaneous observations carried out on 07 July, 2004, using the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope*and the ACIS-I instrument aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as the Submillimeter Array SMA**on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Very Large Array***in New Mexico. Results. The observations revealed several flare events in all wavelength domains. Here we show that the flare emission can be described with a combination of a synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model followed by an adiabatic expansion of the source components. The SSC emission at NIR and X-ray wavelengths involves up-scattered sub-millimeter photons from a compact source component. At the start of the flare, spectra of these components peak at frequencies between several 100 GHz and 2 THz. The adiabatic expansion then accounts for the variable emission observed at sub-mm/mm wavelengths. The derived physical quantities that describe the flare emission give a blob expansion speed of v_exp ∼ 0.005 c, magnetic field of B around 60 G or less and spectral indices of α = 0.8 to 1.4, corresponding to a particle spectral index p ∼2.6 to 3.8. Conclusions. A combined SSC and adiabatic expansion model can fully account for the observed flare flux densities and delay times covering the spectral range from the X-ray to the mm-radio domain. The derived model parameters suggest that the adiabatic expansion takes place in source components that have a bulk motion larger than v_exp or the expanding material contributes to a corona or disk, confined to the immediate surroundings of SgrA*.