Stochastic acceleration of electrons and protons by waves propagating parallel to the large-scale magnetic fields of magnetized plasmas is studied with emphasis on the feasibility of accelerating particles from a thermal background to relativistic energies and with the aim of determining the relative acceleration of the two species in one source. In general, the stochastic acceleration by these waves results in two distinct components in the particle distributions, a quasi-thermal and a hard nonthermal, with the nonthermal one being more prominent in hotter plasmas and /or with higher level turbulence. This can explain many of the observed features of solar flares. Regarding the proton-to-electron ratio, we find that in a pure hydrogen plasma the dominance of the wave-proton interaction by the resonant Alfvén mode reduces the acceleration rate of protons in the intermediate energy range significantly, while the electron-cyclotron and Whistler waves are very efficient in accelerating electrons from a few keV to MeV energies. The presence of such an acceleration barrier prohibits the proton acceleration under solar flare conditions. This difficulty is alleviated when we include the effects of 4 He in the dispersion relation and the damping of the turbulent waves by the thermal background plasma. The additional 4 He cyclotron branch of the turbulent plasma waves suppresses the proton acceleration barrier significantly, and the steep turbulence spectrum in the dissipation range makes the nonthermal component have a near power-law shape. The relative acceleration of protons and electrons is very sensitive to a plasma parameter ¼ ! pe = e , where ! pe and e are the electron plasma frequency and gyrofrequency, respectively. Protons are preferentially accelerated in weakly magnetized plasmas (large ). The formalism developed here is applicable to the acceleration of other ion species and to other astrophysical systems.

The radio source Sagittarius A* in the Galactic center emits a polarized spectrum at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths that is strongly suggestive of relativistic disk accretion onto a massive black hole. We use the wellconstrained mass of Sgr A* and a magnetohydrodynamic model of the accretion flow to match both the total flux and polarization from this object. Our results demonstrate explicitly that the shift in the position angle of the polarization vector, seen at wavelengths near the peak of the millimeter to submillimeter emission from this source, is a signal of relativistic accretion flow in a strong gravitational field. We provide maps of the polarized emission to illustrate how the images of polarized intensity from the vicinity of the black hole would appear in upcoming observations with very long baseline radio interferometers (VLBIs). Our results suggest that near-term VLBI observations will be able to directly image the polarized Keplerian portion of the flow near the horizon of the black hole.

The recent detection of variable infrared emission from Sagittarius A* combined with its previously observed flare activity in X-rays provide compelling evidence that at least a portion of this object's emission is produced by nonthermal electrons. The polarization and variability of Sgr A*'s emission depend strongly on the observed wavelength, indicating distinct physical processes. We show here that acceleration of electrons by plasma wave turbulence in hot gases near the black hole's event horizon can, although with several theoretical uncertainties, reasonably account both for Sgr A*'s millimeter and shorter wavelength emission in the quiescent state and for the infrared and X-ray flares, induced either via an enhancement of the mass accretion rate onto the black hole or by reorganization of magnetic fields coupled to the accretion gas. High-energy electrons diffusing away from the acceleration site toward larger radii might account for Sgr A*'s emission at longer wavelengths. The acceleration model produces prominent IR flares accompanying X-ray bursts. Future coordinated multiwavelength observations will be able to test this model and constrain its parameters.

The recent detection of a three-hour X-ray flare from Sgr A* by Chandra provides very strong evidence for a compact emitting region near this supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. Sgr A*'s mm/sub-mm spectrum and linear polarimetric properties, and its quiescent-state X-ray flux density, are consistent with a model in which low angular momentum gas captured at large radii circularizes to form a hot, magnetized Keplerian flow within tens of Schwarzschild radii of the black hole's event horizon. In Sgr A*'s quiescent state, the X-ray emission appears to be produced by self-Comptonization (SSC) of the mm/sub-mm synchrotron photons emitted in this region. In this paper, we show that the prominent X-ray flare seen in Sgr A* may be due to a sudden enhancement of accretion through the circularized flow. Depending on whether the associated response of the anomalous viscosity is to increase or decrease in tandem with this additional injection of mass, the X-ray photons during the outburst may be produced either via thermal bremsstrahlung (if the viscosity decreases), or via SSC (if the viscosity increases). However, the latter predicts a softer X-ray spectrum than was seen by Chandra, so it appears that a bremsstrahlung origin for the X-ray outburst is favored. A strong correlation is expected between the mm/sub-mm and X-ray fluxes when the flare X-rays are produced by SSC, while the correlated variability is strongest between the sub-mm/far-IR and X-rays when bremsstrahlung emission is dominant during the flare. In addition, we show that future coordinated multi-wavelength observations planned for the 2002 and 2003 cycles may be able to distinguish between the accretion and jet scenarios.

We present a study of the spatial and spectral evolution of the loop-top (LT) sources in a sample of six flares near the solar limb observed by RHESSI. A distinct coronal source, which we identify as the LT source, was seen in each of these flares from the early ''preheating'' phase through the late decay phase. Spectral analyses reveal an evident steep power-law component in the preheating and impulsive phases, suggesting that the particle acceleration starts upon the onset of the flares. In the late decay phase the LT source has a thermal spectrum and appears to be confined within a small region near the top of the flare loop and does not spread throughout the loop, as is observed at lower energies. The total energy of this source decreases usually faster than expected from the radiative cooling but much slower than that due to the classical Spitzer conductive cooling along the flare loop. These results indicate the presence of a distinct LT region, where the thermal conductivity is suppressed significantly and/or there is a continuous energy input. We suggest that plasma wave turbulence could play important roles in both heating the plasma and suppressing the conduction during the decay phase of solar flares. With a simple quasi-steady loop model we show that the energy input in the gradual phase can be comparable to that in the impulsive phase and demonstrate how the observed cooling and confinement of the LT source can be used to constrain the wave-particle interaction.