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Kazuki Yanagisawa

Publications and source records attributed to Kazuki Yanagisawa.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Evidence for Multiple Orbiting Hotspots in the 340 GHz Variability of Sgr A*

We analyzed 11 epochs of archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) data to investigate flux density variability of Sgr A* at 340 GHz. In one epoch, the light curve exhibits two short-timescale components with characteristic periods of ~30 min and ~50 min. While the corresponding peaks in the periodogram are highly significant under a white-noise assumption, their significance decreases below 3 σwhen red-noise variability is taken into account, and we therefore do not regard them as statistically significant periodic detections. Nevertheless, the observed timescales are comparable to the orbital period near the innermost stable circular orbit of Sgr A*, and the light curve shows phase-dependent structure and amplitude evolution consistent with orbital modulation. We find that the variability is well described by a model involving multiple orbiting hotspots with decaying emission. This interpretation suggests that both periodic and non-periodic variability in Sgr A* may arise from a common physical origin in orbiting structures within the accretion flow, providing a unified framework for its millimeter variability.

astro-ph.HE↗

A Face-on Accretion Disk Geometry Revealed by Millimeter-wave Periodicity in Sgr A$^*$

We analyzed 77 epochs of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) archival data to investigate flux variability in Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$), the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center. Among these, we identified a rare but unusually clear and coherent ~52-minute sinusoidal modulation at 230 GHz, with a statistical significance exceeding 5σ. Modeling with a Doppler-boosted hotspot scenario yields an orbital radius of ~4 Schwarzschild radii and a disk inclination of 8$^\circ$ (or 172$^\circ$), providing the first direct millimeter wavelength constraint on the inner accretion flow geometry. This nearly face-on inclination is in good agreement with previous constraints from GRAVITY and EHT observations. These findings provide robust, independent evidence that millimeter-wave periodicity can directly probe the innermost accretion flow geometry, offering a powerful complement to variability studies at infrared and X-ray wavelengths.

astro-ph.HE↗

Observations of High Energy Cosmic-Ray Electrons from 30 GeV to 3 TeV with Emulsion Chambers

We have performed a series of cosmic-ray electron observations using the balloon-borne emulsion chambers since 1968. While we previously reported the results from subsets of the exposures, the final results of the total exposures up to 2001 are presented here. Our successive experiments have yielded the total exposure of 8.19 m^2 sr day at the altitudes of 4.0 - 9.4 g/cm^2. The performance of the emulsion chambers was examined by accelerator beam tests and Monte-Carlo simulations, and the on-board calibrations were carried out by using the flight data. In this work we present the cosmic-ray electron spectrum in the energy range from 30 GeV to 3 TeV at the top of the atmosphere, which is well represented by a power-law function with an index of -3.28+-0.10. The observed data can be also interpreted in terms of diffusive propagation models. The evidence of cosmic-ray electrons up to 3 TeV suggests the existence of cosmic-ray electron sources at distances within ~1 kpc and times within ~1x10^5 yr ago.

astro-ph.HE↗