X-ray Telescope Research Articles

Development of superconducting microcalorimeters for the HUBS mission

Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS) is a proposed space-borne observatory for X-ray astronomy. The primary scientific objectives of the mission are to fill a void in probing the ecosystem of galaxies and thus to advance our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, which is of fundamental importance in cosmology. More specifically, HUBS aims at directly detecting soft X-ray emission from diffuse gas of temperature exceeding 10 6 K, which is theoretically postulated to permeate the large structures in the cosmic web and also fill the extended halo of galaxies. However, although some indirect evidence exists, the presence of such hot gas has yet to be well established observationally, due to the lack of effective tools to probe it. In this paper, we describe the design of HUBS, focusing on its scientific payload, which employs superconducting technologies in the detector system, and particularly on progress in the development of superconducting microcalorimeters.

Forward fitting STIX visibilities

Aims. We seek to determine to what extent the problem of forward fitting visibilities measured by the Spectrometer/Telescope Imaging X-rays (STIX) on board Solar Orbiter becomes more challenging with respect to the same problem in the case of previous hard X-ray solar imaging missions. In addition, we aim to identify an effective optimization scheme for parametric imaging for STIX. Methods. This paper introduces a global search optimization for forward-fitting STIX visibilities and compares its effectiveness with respect to the standard simplex-based optimization used so far for the analysis of visibilities measured by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). We made this comparison by considering experimental visibilities measured by both RHESSI and STIX, as weel as synthetic visibilities generated by accounting for the STIX signal formation model. Results. We found that among the three global search algorithms for parametric imaging, particle swarm optimization (PSO) exhibits the best performances in terms of both stability and computational effectiveness. This method is as reliable as the simplex method in the case of RHESSI visibilities. However, PSO is significantly more robust when applied to STIX simulated and experimental visibilities. Conclusions. A standard optimization based on local search of minima is not effective enough for forward-fitting the few visibilities sampled by STIX in the spatial frequency plane. Therefore, more sophisticated optimization schemes based on global search must be introduced for parametric imaging in the case of the Solar Orbiter X-ray telescope. The forward-fitting routine based on PSO proved to be significantly robust and reliable, and it could be considered as an effective candidate tool for parametric imaging in the STIX context.

The Spectral Evolution Patterns and Implications of Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Flares

We present a time-resolved spectral analysis of bright X-ray flares observed by Swift X-ray telescope from 2004 December to 2021 December. We selected 58 bright flares from 56 gamma-ray burst X-ray afterglows to perform time-resolved spectral analysis. We find that there is a strong spectral evolution in X-ray flares. Spectral evolution exists in all the X-ray flares. We have not found flares without spectral evolutions in our samples. The spectrum of an X-ray afterglow is dominated by the flare when it exists. Four spectral evolution patterns were found, i.e., hard-to-soft, intensity tracking, soft-to-hard, and anti-intensity tracking. Most of the flares (46 flares, 79.3%) show a spectral evolution from hard to soft. Five (8.6%) flares are intensity tracking. Two (3.5%) flares show soft-to-hard. Five (8.6%) flares show anti-intensity tracking. Therefore, hard-to-soft spectral evolution patterns dominate the spectral evolutions of X-ray flares. In other words, the hard-to-soft spectral evolution pattern is the main evolution pattern of X-ray flares. Hard-to-soft, intensity tracking, and soft-to-hard spectral evolution patterns are the same as prompt emission spectral evolutions, indicating that the origin of flares should be the same as prompt emissions and the flares are the lower energy band emissions of the prompt emissions. The spectral evolution intensities are independent of the peak time and FWHM of the flares. In other words, the spectral evolution intensity is irrelevant to the flare occurrence time and its duration but related to the peak fluxes of flares. This means that the more luminous the flares, the stronger the spectral evolutions.

Constraining Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter in the Milky Way Halo with Swift-XRT

We present a search for sterile neutrino dark matter decay signals in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo by considering the entirety of the Swift X-ray Telescope (Swift-XRT) data archive. After filtering the raw archive, we analyze a ∼77 Ms data set containing the full field of view, as well as a ∼41 Ms data set with point sources excised using the Swift-XRT Point Source catalog. We report nondetections of emission lines across the 3–6 keV continuum in both data sets, including at and around 3.5 keV. The point-source-excised data set is found to have higher sensitivity to faint dark matter decay signals due to its freedom from point-source contamination and is thus used to set constraints. Nondetections across the total data set’s continuum are used to constrain the sterile neutrino dark matter parameter space, marginally strengthening existing X-ray constraints. Nondetections at ∼3.5 keV in data subsets grouped by angular distance from the galactic center are used to constrain the 3.5 keV line’s galactic intensity profile, providing the strongest constraints to date across ∼1/4 of the galaxy.

First Wide Field-of-view X-Ray Observations by a Lobster-eye Focusing Telescope in Orbit

As a novel X-ray focusing technology, lobster-eye micropore optics (MPO) feature both a wide observing field of view and true imaging capability, promising sky monitoring with significantly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution in soft X-rays. Since first proposed by Angel, the optics have been extensively studied, developed and trialed over the past decades. In this Letter, we report on the first-light results from a flight experiment of the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy, a pathfinder of the wide-field X-ray telescope of the Einstein Probe mission. The piggyback imager, launched in 2022 July, has a mostly unvignetted field of view of 18.°6 × 18.°6. Its spatial resolution is in the range of 4′–7′ in FWHM and the focal spot effective area is 2–3 cm2, both showing only mild fluctuations across the field of view. We present images of the Galactic center region, Sco X-1, and the diffuse Cygnus Loop nebular taken in snapshot observations over 0.5–4 keV. These are truly wide-field X-ray images of celestial bodies observed, for the first time, by a focusing imaging telescope. Initial analyses of the in-flight data show excellent agreement between the observed images and the on-ground calibration and simulations. The instrument and its characterization are briefly described, as well as the flight experiment. The results provide a solid basis for the development of the present and proposed wide-field X-ray missions using lobster-eye MPO.

Synthesis mechanism of Ni–Co alloy uniting ultrahigh strength with tensile ductility via abrasive-assisted electroforming

Persistent efforts are being made to combine strength and ductility in metallic nanomaterials. We successfully prepared a homogeneous nanocrystalline Ni−27%Co alloy exhibiting ultrahigh strength and sufficient ductility using abrasive-assisted electroforming (AAE) with free ceramic beads. The AAE process permits superior control of the microstructure of nanocrystalline Ni–Co alloy. Our results demonstrated that the structure of the Ni−27%Co alloy (AAE) consists of ultrafine equiaxed nanocrystals with an average grain size of 88 nm and a twin boundary fraction of 24%. The alloy structure results from the combined effect of the addition of Co as an alloying element and the electrochemical and physical action of the moving ceramic beads on the nucleation and growth. The Ni−27%Co alloy (AAE) exhibited superior yield and tensile strength of 1103 ± 47 and 1639 ± 19 MPa, respectively, while having excellent ductility with tensile elongation to failure of 8.5 ± 0.5%. The yield strength of the Ni−27%Co alloy (AAE) was approximately 1.6 times that of the Ni−26%Co alloy (Direct current electroforming, DCE). This result can be attributed to the contribution of strengthening mechanisms that involve frictional stress, dislocation, grain boundary, solid solution, and twin boundary strengthening. Among them, the grain boundary (Hall-Petch) strengthening, arising from grain boundary-dislocation interactions, and twin boundary strengthening, arising from the intersection of the twin-dislocation, account for approximately 70% of the total yield strength. The tensile ductility of the Ni−27%Co alloy (AAE) at ultrahigh flow stress can be preserved by simultaneous strain and strain-rate hardening using the AAE method. This study provides a novel strategy for synthesizing ductile ultrahigh strength materials for applications in microelectromechanical systems, surface coatings, and X-ray telescopes.

Time-scale-dependent X-ray to UV time lags of NGC 4593 using high-intensity XMM–Newton observations with Swift and AstroSat

ABSTRACT We present a 140 ks observation of NGC 4593 with XMM–Newton providing simultaneous and continuous pn X-ray and OM UV (UVW1 2910 Å) light curves, which sample short-time-scale variations better than previous observations. These observations were simultaneous with 22 d of Swift X-ray and UV/optical monitoring reported previously, and 4 d of AstroSat Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), far (FUV 1541 Å) and near (NUV 2632 Å) UV allowing lag measurements between them and the highly-sampled XMM. From the XMM, we find that UVW1 lags behind the X-rays by 29.5 ± 1.3 ks, ∼half the lag previously determined from the Swift monitoring. Re-examination of the Swift data reveals a bimodal lag distribution, with evidence for both the long and short lags. However, if we detrend the Swift light curves by LOWESS filtering with a 5 d width, only the shorter lag (23.8 ± 21.2 ks) remains. The NUV observations, compared to pn and SXT, confirm the ∼30 ks lag found by XMM, and after 4 d filtering is applied to remove the long-time-scale component, the FUV shows a lag of ∼23 ks. The resultant new UVW1, FUV, and NUV lag spectrum extends to the X-ray band without requiring additional X-ray to UV lag offset, which if the UV arises from reprocessing of X-rays implies direct illumination of the reprocessor. By referencing previous Swift and HST lag measurements, we obtain an X-ray to optical lag spectrum, which agrees with a model using the KYNreverb disc-reprocessing code, assuming the accepted mass of 7.63 × 106 M⊙ and a spin approaching maximum. Previously noted lag contribution from the BLR in the Balmer and Paschen continua are still prominent.

Frequency domain multiplexing readout for large arrays of transition-edge sensors

We report our most recent progress and demonstration of a frequency domain multiplexing (FDM) readout technology for transition-edge sensor (TES) arrays, both of which we have been developing in the framework of the X-IFU instrument on board the future Athena X-ray telescope. Using Ti/Au TES micro-calorimeters, high-Q LC filters and analog/digital electronics developed at SRON and low-noise two-stage SQUID amplifiers from VTT Finland, we demonstrated the feasibility of our FDM readout technology, with the simultaneous readout of 37 pixels with an energy resolution of 2.23 eV at an energy of 6 keV. We finally outline our plans for further scaling up and improving our technology in the future.

Formation and thermodynamic evolution of plasmoids in active region jets

ABSTRACT We have carried out a comprehensive study of the temperature structure of plasmoids, which successively occurred in recurrent active region jets. The multithermal plasmoids were seen to be travelling along the multithreaded spire as well as at the footpoint region in the EUV/UV images recorded by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). The differential emission measure (DEM) analysis was performed using EUV AIA images, and the high-temperature part of the DEM was constrained by combining X-ray images from the X-ray telescope (XRT/Hinode). We observed a systematic rise and fall in brightness, electron number densities and the peak temperatures of the spire plasmoid during its propagation along the jet. The plasmoids at the footpoint (FPs) (1.0–2.5 MK) and plasmoids at the spire (SPs) (1.0–2.24 MK) were found to have similar peak temperatures, whereas the FPs have higher DEM weighted temperatures (2.2–5.7 MK) than the SPs (1.3–3.0 MK). A lower limit to the electron number densities of plasmoids – SPs (FPs) were obtained that ranged between 3.4–6.1 × 108 (3.3–5.9 × 108) cm−3 whereas for the spire, it ranged from 2.6–3.2 × 108 cm−3. Our analysis shows that the emission of these plasmoids starts close to the base of the jet(s), where we believe that a strong current interface is formed. This suggests that the blobs are plasmoids induced by a tearing-mode instability.

Cosmological Simulation of Galaxy Groups and Clusters. II. Studying Different Modes of Feedback through X-Ray Observations

The impact of feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on the cosmological evolution of the large-scale structure is a long-studied problem. However, it is still not well understood how the feedback energy couples to the ambient medium to influence the properties of AGN host galaxies and dark matter halos. In this work we investigate different modes of AGN feedback and their effect on the surrounding medium by probing the diffuse X-ray emission from the hot gas inside galaxy groups and clusters. For this purpose, we use the cosmological hydrodynamic simulation SIMBA to theoretically calculate the X-ray emission from simulated galaxy clusters/groups with the help of the Astrophysical Plasma Emission Code. We also perform synthetic observations of these systems with the Chandra X-ray telescope using the ray-tracing simulator Model of AXAF Response to X-rays. Our results show that in addition to the radiative wind mode of feedback from the AGNs, jet and X-ray modes of feedback play significant roles in suppressing the X-ray emission from the diffuse gas in the vicinity of the black hole. Our mock observational maps suggest that the signatures of AGN feedback from high-redshift objects may not be detected with the instrumental resolution of current X-ray telescopes like Chandra, but provide promising prospects for detection of these features with potential X-ray missions such as Lynx.

A Machine-learning Approach to Enhancing eROSITA Observations

The eROSITA X-ray telescope, launched in 2019, is predicted to observe roughly 100,000 galaxy clusters. Follow-up observations of these clusters from Chandra, for example, will be needed to resolve outstanding questions about galaxy cluster physics. Deep Chandra cluster observations are expensive, and it is unfeasible to follow up every eROSITA cluster, therefore the objects that are chosen for follow-up must be chosen with care. To address this, we have developed an algorithm for predicting longer-duration, background-free observations, based on mock eROSITA observations. We make use of the hydrodynamic cosmological simulation Magneticum, simulate eROSITA instrument conditions using SIXTE, and apply a novel convolutional neural network to output a deep Chandra-like “super observation” of each cluster in our simulation sample. Any follow-up merit assessment tool should be designed with a specific use case in mind; our model produces observations that accurately and precisely reproduce the cluster morphology, which is a critical ingredient for determining a cluster’s dynamical state and core type. Our model will advance our understanding of galaxy clusters by improving follow-up selection, and it demonstrates that image-to-image deep learning algorithms are a viable method for simulating realistic follow-up observations.

XPOL-III: A new-generation VLSI CMOS ASIC for high-throughput X-ray polarimetry

While the successful launch and operation in space of the Gas Pixel Detectors onboard the PolarLight cubesat and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer demonstrate the viability and the technical soundness of this class of detectors for astronomical X-ray polarimetry, it is clear that the current state of the art is not ready to meet the challenges of the next generation of experiments, such as the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission, designed to allow for a significantly larger data throughput.In this paper we describe the design and test of a new custom, self-triggering readout ASIC, dubbed XPOL-III, specifically conceived to address and overcome these limitations. While building upon the overall architecture of the previous generations, the new chip improves over its predecessors in several, different key areas: the sensitivity of the trigger electronics, the flexibility in the definition of the readout window, as well as the maximum speed for the serial event readout. These design improvements, when combined, allow for almost an order of magnitude smaller dead time per event with no measurable degradation of the polarimetric, spectral, imaging or timing capability of the detector, providing a good match for the next generation of X-ray missions.

A real-time transient detector and the living Swift-XRT point source catalogue

ABSTRACT We present the Living Swift-XRT Point Source (LSXPS) catalogue and real-time transient detector. This system allows us for the first time to carry out low-latency searches for new transient X-ray events fainter than those available to the current generation of wide-field imagers, and report their detection in near real time. Previously, such events could only be found in delayed searches, e.g. of archival data; our low-latency analysis now enables rapid and ongoing follow-up of these events, enabling the probing of time-scales previously inaccessible. The LSXPS is, uniquely among X-ray catalogues, updated in near real time, making this the first up-to-date record of the point sources detected by a sensitive X-ray telescope: the SwiftX-ray Telescope. The associated upper limit calculator likewise makes use of all available data allowing contemporary upper limits to be rapidly produced on demand. These facilities, which enable the low-latency transient system, are also fully available to the community, providing a powerful resource for time-domain and multimessenger astrophysics.

Femtosecond laser micromachining for stress-based figure correction of thin mirrors

The fabrication of a large number of high-resolution thin-shell mirrors for future space telescopes remains challenging, especially for revolutionary mission concepts such as NASA’s Lynx X-ray Surveyor. It is generally harder to fabricate thin mirrors to the exact shape than thicker ones, and the coatings deposited onto mirror surfaces to increase the reflectivity typically have high intrinsic stress that deforms the mirrors further. Since the rapid development of femtosecond laser technologies over the last few decades has triggered wide applications in materials processing, we have developed a mirror figure correction and stress compensation method using a femtosecond laser micromachining technique for stress-based surface shaping of thin-shell x-ray optics. We employ a femtosecond laser to selectively remove regions of a stressed film that is grown onto the back surface of the mirror, to modify the stress states of the mirror. In this paper, we present experimental results to create both isotropic and anisotropic stress states on thin flat silicon mirrors with thermal oxide ( S i O 2 ) films using femtosecond lasers. We show that equibiaxial stress can be generated through uniformly micromachined holes, while non-equibiaxial stress arises from the ablation of equally spaced troughs. We also present results from strength tests to show how this process minimally affects the strength of mirrors. These developments are beneficial to the high-throughput correction of thin-shell mirrors for future space-based x-ray telescopes.

The Communication of Plants and Creatures in the World

Communication is an essential factor for the interactions between species and the structure of their communities. Plant and other world creature interactions are particularly diverse due to the complex nature of their mutualistic relationships. The main important communication of plant are: carrion flowers, living stone plant, butterfly-egg mimicry, orchid mimics bee, bird dropping mimicry, little dragon monkey, large duck orchid, the white egret orchid, dove orchid , tulip orchid, cockleshell orchid, parrot, a naked man orchid, tiger orchid, happy alien, lips, dancing lady orchid, Many arthropods looks like the flower, sticks, seeds , thorn , leaf . These phenomens of creatures in the world is due to self-protection using mimicry and camouflage. Mimicry is the similarity of one species to another. Nature communication will provide a guideline to use these phenomenon for human for example mimicry of X-ray telescope from other creatures, Solar biomimicry, wind turbines, The Solar Sailor, The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, wasp “sniff” explosives and illegal drugs, and remote control.

The luminous type IIn supernova SN 2017hcc: Infrared bright, X-ray, and radio faint

ABSTRACT We present multiwavelength observations of supernova (SN) 2017hcc with the Chandra X-ray telescope and the X-ray telescope onboard Swift (Swift-XRT) in X-ray bands, with the Spitzer and the TripleSpec spectrometer in near-infrared (IR) and mid-IR bands and with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) for radio bands. The X-ray observations cover a period of 29 to 1310 d, with the first X-ray detection on day 727 with the Chandra. The SN was subsequently detected in the VLA radio bands from day 1000 onwards. While the radio data are sparse, synchrotron-self absorption is clearly ruled out as the radio absorption mechanism. The near- and the mid-IR observations showed that late time IR emission dominates the spectral energy distribution. The early properties of SN 2017hcc are consistent with shock breakout into a dense mass-loss region, with $\dot{M} \sim 0.1$ M⊙ yr−1 for a decade. At few 100 d, the mass-loss rate declined to ∼0.02 M⊙ yr−1, as determined from the dominant IR luminosity. In addition, radio data also allowed us to calculate a mass-loss rate at around day 1000, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the mass-loss rate estimates around the bolometric peak. These values indicate that the SN progenitor underwent an enhanced mass-loss event a decade before the explosion. The high ratio of IR to X-ray luminosity is not expected in simple models and is possible evidence for an asymmetric circumstellar region.

A Swift X-Ray View of the SMS4 Sample—X-Ray Properties of 31 Quasars and Radio Galaxies

We present Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (hereafter Swift) observations of 31 sources from the SMS4 catalog, a sample of 137 bright radio sources originally designed to extend the well-studied 3CRR radio sample to the Southern Hemisphere. All these sources had no Chandra or XMM-Newton observations: 24 of these were observed with Swift through a dedicated proposal in 2015, and data for the remaining seven were retrieved from the Swift archive. The reduction and analysis of data collected by the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) led to 20 detections in the 0.3–10 keV band. We provide details of the X-ray emission in this band for these 20 detections, as well as upper limits for the remaining 11 SMS4 sources. When statistics allowed, we investigated the extent of the X-ray emission and the hardness ratio, and we carried out a spectral analysis. We matched the 20 X-ray-detected sources with infrared (AllWISE, CatWISE2020) and optical (GSC 2.3.2, DES DR2) catalogs to establish associations with infrared and optical sources and compared our results with previously published counterparts in these bands. Requiring a detection in both the infrared and optical bands to establish a candidate counterpart for our X-ray detections, we obtain reliable counterparts for 18 sources, while the remaining two sources need further investigation to establish firm identifications. In the infrared, we confirm 12 previously established counterparts and provide six new candidates. In the optical, we find agreement with 13 previously established counterparts, while we provide an alternative candidate for five SMS4 sources. We find that ∼35% of all the SMS4 sources lie below the lower limit of 10.9 Jy for the flux density at 178 MHz established for the 3CRR sample, at variance with the values extrapolated using measurements at higher frequencies. Therefore, for future studies where flux-density-limited samples are needed, we encourage the use of the more recent G4Jy sample. We present the list of 56 SMS4 sources that in 2022 March remain to be observed in the X-rays with narrow-field instruments, to highlight interesting sources and organize further observational campaigns to achieve complete X-ray coverage for the whole SMS4 in the forthcoming years.

Modeling a Three-Stage SQUID System in Space with the First Micro-X Sounding Rocket Flight

The Micro-X sounding rocket is a NASA funded X-ray telescope payload that completed its first flight on July 22, 2018. This event marked the first operation of Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) and their SQUID-based multiplexing readout system in space. Unfortunately, due to an ACS pointing failure, the rocket was spinning during its five minute observation period and no scientific data was collected. However, data collected from the internal calibration source marked a partial success for the payload and offers a unique opportunity to study the response of TESs and SQUIDs in space. Of particular interest is the magnetic field response of the NIST MUX06a SQUID readout system to tumbling through Earth's magnetic field. We present a model to explain the baseline response of the SQUIDs, which lead to a subset of pixels failing to "lock" for the full observational period. Future flights of the Micro-X rocket will include the NIST MUX18b SQUID system with dramatically reduced magnetic susceptibility.

Detecting clusters of galaxies and active galactic nuclei in an eROSITA all-sky survey digital twin

Context. The extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory is revolutionizing X-ray astronomy. The mission provides unprecedented samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and clusters of galaxies, with the potential of studying astrophysical properties of X-ray sources and measuring cosmological parameters using X-ray-selected samples with higher precision than ever before. Aims. We aim to study the detection, and the selection of AGN and clusters of galaxies in the first eROSITA all-sky survey, and to characterize the properties of the source catalog. Methods. We produced a half-sky simulation at the depth of the first eROSITA survey (eRASS1), by combining models that truthfully represent the population of clusters and AGN. In total, we simulated 1 116 758 clusters and 225 583 320 AGN. We ran the standard eROSITA detection algorithm, optimized for extragalactic sources. We matched the input and the source catalogs with a photon-based matching algorithm. Results. We perfectly recovered the bright AGN and clusters. We detected half of the simulated AGN with flux larger than 2 × 10−14 erg s−1 cm−2 as point sources and half of the simulated clusters with flux larger than 3 × 10−13 erg s−1 cm−2 as extended sources in the 0.5–2.0 keV band. We quantified the detection performance in terms of completeness, false detection rate, and contamination. We studied the population in the source catalog according to multiple cuts of source detection and extension likelihood. We find that the latter is suitable for removing contamination, and the former is very efficient in minimizing the false detection rate. We find that the detection of clusters of galaxies is mainly driven by flux and exposure time. It additionally depends on secondary effects, such as the size of the clusters on the sky plane and their dynamical state. The cool core bias mostly affects faint clusters classified as point sources, while its impact on the extent-selected sample is small. We measured the fraction of the area covered by our simulation as a function of limiting flux. We measured the X-ray luminosity of the detected clusters and find that it is compatible with the simulated values. Conclusions. We discuss how to best build samples of galaxy clusters for cosmological purposes, accounting for the nonuniform depth of eROSITA. This simulation provides a digital twin of the real eRASS1.

Do Cellular Automaton Avalanche Models Simulate the Quasi-periodic Pulsations of Solar Flares?

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) with various periods that originate in the underlying magnetohydrodynamic processes of flaring structures are detected repeatedly in solar flare emissions. We apply a 2D cellular automaton (CA) avalanche model to simulate QPPs as a result of a repetitive load/unload mechanism. We show that the frequent occurrence of magnetic reconnections in a flaring loop could induce quasi-periodic patterns in the detected emissions. We find that among 21,070 simulated flares, 813 events last over 50 s, scaled with the temporal resolution of the Yohkoh Hard X-ray Telescope, and about 70% of these rather long-lasting events exhibit QPPs. We also illustrate that the applied CA model provides a wide range of periodicities for QPPs. Furthermore, we observe the presence of multiple periods in nearly 50% of the cases by applying the Lomb–Scargle periodogram. A lognormal distribution is fitted to the unimodal distribution of the periods as a manifestation of an underlying multiplicative mechanism that typifies the effect of the system’s independently varying parameters. The global maximum of the periods’ lognormal distribution is located at 29.29 ± 0.67 s. We compare statistics of the simulated QPPs with parameters of the host flares and discuss the impacts of flare properties on the periods of QPPs. Considering the intrinsic characteristic of CA models, namely the repetitive load/unload mechanism, and the obtained pieces of evidence, we suggest that CA models may generate QPPs. We also examine the applicability of autoregressive integrated moving average models to describe the simulated and observed QPPs.