The general theory of relativity predicts that a star passing close to a supermassive black hole should exhibit a relativistic redshift. In this study, we used observations of the Galactic Center ...star S0-2 to test this prediction. We combined existing spectroscopic and astrometric measurements from 1995-2017, which cover S0-2's 16-year orbit, with measurements from March to September 2018, which cover three events during S0-2's closest approach to the black hole. We detected a combination of special relativistic and gravitational redshift, quantified using the redshift parameter ϒ. Our result, ϒ = 0.88 ± 0.17, is consistent with general relativity (ϒ = 1) and excludes a Newtonian model (ϒ = 0) with a statistical significance of 5σ.
Stars with short orbital periods at the center of our Galaxy offer a powerful probe of a supermassive black hole. Over the past 17 years, the W. M. Keck Observatory has been used to image the ...galactic center at the highest angular resolution possible today. By adding to this data set and advancing methodologies, we have detected S0-102, a star orbiting our Galaxy's supermassive black hole with a period of just 11.5 years. S0-102 doubles the number of known stars with full phase coverage and periods of less than 20 years. It thereby provides the opportunity, with future measurements, to resolve degeneracies in the parameters describing the central gravitational potential and to test Einstein's theory of general relativity in an unexplored regime.
We report new precision measurements of the properties of our Galaxy's supermassive black hole. Based on astrometric (1995-2007) and radial velocity (RV; 2000-2007) measurements from the W. M. Keck ...10 m telescopes, a fully unconstrained Keplerian orbit for the short-period star S0-2 provides values for the distance of image kpc, the enclosed mass of image, and the black hole's RV, which is consistent with zero with 30 km s super(-1) uncertainty. If the black hole is assumed to be at rest with respect to the Galaxy (e.g., has no massive companion to induce motion), we can further constrain the fit, obtaining image kpc and image. More complex models constrain the extended dark mass distribution to be less than 3-image within 0.01 pc, image100 times higher than predictions from stellar and stellar remnant models. For all models, we identify transient astrometric shifts from source confusion (up to 5 times the astrometric error) and the assumptions regarding the black hole's radial motion as previously unrecognized limitations on orbital accuracy and the usefulness of fainter stars. Future astrometric and RV observations will remedy these effects. Our estimates of image and the Galaxy's local rotation speed, which it is derived from combining image with the apparent proper motion of Sgr A*, (image km s super(-1)), are compatible with measurements made using other methods. The increased black hole mass found in this study, compared to that determined using projected mass estimators, implies a longer period for the innermost stable orbit, longer resonant relaxation timescales for stars in the vicinity of the black hole and a better agreement with the image -image relation.
We present new proper motions from the 10 m Keck telescopes for a puzzling population of massive, young stars located within 35 (0.14 pc) of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. Our ...proper motion measurements have uncertainties of only 0.07 mas yr-1 (3 km s-1), which is 7 times better than previous proper motion measurements for these stars, and enables us to measure accelerations as low as 0.2 mas yr-2 (7 km s-1 yr-1). Using these measurements, line-of-sight velocities from the literature, and three-dimensional velocities for additional young stars in the central parsec, we constrain the true orbit of each individual star and directly test the hypothesis that the massive stars reside in two stellar disks as has been previously proposed. Analysis of the stellar orbits reveals only one of the previously proposed disks of young stars using a method that is capable of detecting disks containing at least seven stars. The detected disk contains 50% of the young stars, is inclined by ~115° from the plane of the sky, and is oriented at a position angle of ~100° east of north. Additionally, the on-disk and off-disk populations have similar K-band luminosity functions and radial distributions that decrease at larger radii as r -2. The disk has an out-of-the-disk velocity dispersion of 28 ± 6 km s-1, which corresponds to a half-opening angle of 7° ± 2°, and several candidate disk members have eccentricities greater than 0.2. Our findings suggest that the young stars may have formed in situ but in a more complex geometry than a simple, thin circular disk.
Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is the variable radio, near-infrared (NIR), and X-ray source associated with accretion onto the Galactic center black hole. We present an analysis of the most comprehensive ...NIR variability data set of Sgr A* to date: eight 24 hr epochs of continuous monitoring of Sgr A* at 4.5 m with the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope, 93 epochs of 2.18 m data from Naos Conica at the Very Large Telescope, and 30 epochs of 2.12 m data from the NIRC2 camera at the Keck Observatory, in total 94,929 measurements. A new approximate Bayesian computation method for fitting the first-order structure function extracts information beyond current fast Fourier transformation (FFT) methods of power spectral density (PSD) estimation. With a combined fit of the data of all three observatories, the characteristic coherence timescale of Sgr A* is minutes (90% credible interval). The PSD has no detectable features on timescales down to 8.5 minutes (95% credible level), which is the ISCO orbital frequency for a dimensionless spin parameter a = 0.92. One light curve measured simultaneously at 2.12 and 4.5 m during a low flux-density phase gave a spectral index s = 1.6 0.1 ( ). This value implies that the Sgr A* NIR color becomes bluer during higher flux-density phases. The probability densities of flux densities of the combined data sets are best fit by log-normal distributions. Based on these distributions, the Sgr A* spectral energy distribution is consistent with synchrotron radiation from a non-thermal electron population from below 20 GHz through the NIR.
Abstract
Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is the variable radio, near-infrared (NIR), and X-ray source associated with accretion onto the Galactic center black hole. We have analyzed a comprehensive ...submillimeter (including new observations simultaneous with NIR monitoring), NIR, and 2–8 keV data set. Submillimeter variations tend to lag those in the NIR by ∼30 minutes. An approximate Bayesian computation fit to the X-ray first-order structure function shows significantly less power at short timescales in the X-rays than in the NIR. Less X-ray variability at short timescales, combined with the observed NIR–X-ray correlations, means the variability can be described as the result of two strictly correlated stochastic processes, the X-ray process being the low-pass-filtered version of the NIR process. The NIR–X-ray linkage suggests a simple radiative model: a compact, self-absorbed synchrotron sphere with high-frequency cutoff close to NIR frequencies plus a synchrotron self-Compton scattering component at higher frequencies. This model, with parameters fit to the submillimeter, NIR, and X-ray structure functions, reproduces the observed flux densities at all wavelengths, the statistical properties of all light curves, and the time lags between bands. The fit also gives reasonable values for physical parameters such as magnetic flux density
B
≈ 13 G, source size
L
≈ 2.2
R
S
, and high-energy electron density
n
e
≈ 4 × 10
7
cm
−3
. An animation illustrates typical light curves, and we make public the parameter chain of our Bayesian analysis, the model implementation, and the visualization code.
Precision measurements of the stars in short-period orbits around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center are now being used to constrain general relativistic effects, such as the ...gravitational redshift and periapse precession. One of the largest systematic uncertainties in the measured orbits has been errors in the astrometric reference frame, which is derived from seven infrared-bright stars associated with SiO masers that have extremely accurate radio positions, measured in the Sgr A*-rest frame. We have improved the astrometric reference frame within 14″ of the Galactic Center by a factor of 2.5 in position and a factor of 5 in proper motion. In the new reference frame, Sgr A* is localized to within a position of 0.645 mas and proper motion of 0.03 mas yr−1. We have removed a substantial rotation (2 25 per decade), that was present in the previous less-accurate reference frame used to measure stellar orbits in the field. With our improved methods and continued monitoring of the masers, we predict that orbital precession predicted by general relativity will become detectable in the next ∼5 yr.
This paper presents the results of a Spitzer IRAC 3-8 mu m photometric search for warm dust orbiting 17 nearby, metal-rich white dwarfs, 15 of which apparently have hydrogen-dominated atmospheres ...(type DAZ). G166-58, G29-38, and GD 362 manifest excess emission in their IRAC fluxes and the latter two are known to harbor dust grains warm enough to radiate detectable emission at near-infrared wavelengths as short as 2 mu m. Their IRAC fluxes display differences compatible with a relatively larger amount of cooler dust at GD 362. G166-58 is presently unique in that it appears to exhibit excess flux only at wavelengths longer than about 5 mu m. Evidence is presented that this mid-infrared emission is most likely associated with the white dwarf, indicating that G166-58 bears clrcumstellar dust no warmer than T similar to 4OC K. The remaining 14 targets reveal no reliable mid-infrared excess, Indicating the majority of DAZ stars do not have warm debris disks sufficiently opaque to be detected by IRAC.
Low-Luminosity Companions to White Dwarfs Farihi, J; Becklin, E. E; Zuckerman, B
The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series,
12/2005, Letnik:
161, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper presents results of a near-infrared imaging survey for low-mass stellar and substellar companions to white dwarfs. A wide-field proper-motion survey of 261 white dwarfs was capable of ...directly detecting companions at orbital separations between 6100 and 5000 AU with masses as low as 0.05 M sub(z), while a deep near-field search of 86 white dwarfs was capable of directly detecting companions at separations between 650 and 1100 AU with masses as low as 0.02 M sub(z). Additionally, all white dwarf targets were examined for near-infrared excess emission, a technique capable of detecting companions at arbitrarily close separations down to masses of 0.05 M sub(z). No brown dwarf candidates were detected, which implies a brown dwarf companion fraction of <0.5% for white dwarfs. In contrast, the stellar companion fraction of white dwarfs as measured by this survey is 22%, uncorrected for bias. Moreover, most of the known and suspected stellar companions to white dwarfs are low-mass stars whose masses are only slightly greater than the masses of brown dwarfs. Twenty previously unknown stellar companions were detected, five of which are confirmed or likely white dwarfs themselves, while 15 are confirmed or likely low-mass stars. Similar to the distribution of cool field dwarfs as a function of spectral type, the number of cool unevolved dwarf companions peaks at mid-M type. Based on the present work, relative to this peak, field L dwarfs appear to be roughly 2-3 times more abundant than companion L dwarfs. Additionally, there is no evidence that the initial companion masses have been altered by post-main-sequence binary interactions.
PDF
