Gas falling into a black hole spirals inward like water down a drain. In this flow, magnetic loops constantly form and pop — somewhat like solar flares, but far more powerful. Each loop is a tiny magnet living its own life. When many of them are present, they start to influence each other: their north and south poles attract and repel in turn.
In the new study, astrophysicists compared this swarm of magnets to a group of fireflies. Individually, each one flickers chaotically. But when the insects are gathered together, their signals can sync up, and then the whole swarm flashes and dims almost simultaneously. The same happens with magnetic loops: their synchronization produces powerful energy outbursts — hot winds, narrow plasma jets, and X-ray flickering.
The most intriguing part is that this model explains the mysterious state transitions in binary systems with a black hole. Sometimes the hole is quiet, and sometimes it 'switches on' intense radiation. It seems that this is a transition between different regimes of the collective dance of magnetic loops — from chaotic flickering to a synchronized chorus. This idea ties together many disparate observations and provides a simple language for describing the complex life of black holes.
The magnetic reconnections in question are the same process that causes auroras on Earth. Only around a black hole, they are trillions of times more powerful.
In the movie 'Interstellar,' the accretion disk around the black hole Gargantua shines steadily, but in reality it should flicker and eject jets, just as this model predicts.