1,003 research outputs found
Simulations of the Origin and Fate of the Galactic Center Cloud G2
We investigate the origin and fate of the recently discovered gas cloud G2
close to the Galactic Center. Our hydrodynamical simulations focussing on the
dynamical evolution of the cloud in combination with currently available
observations favor two scenarios: a Compact Cloud which started around the year
1995 and a Spherical Shell of gas, with an apocenter distance within the
disk(s) of young stars and a radius of a few times the size of the Compact
Cloud. The former is able to explain the detected signal of G2 in the
position-velocity diagram of the Br gamma emission of the year 2008.5 and
2011.5 data. The latter can account for both, G2's signal as well as the
fainter extended tail-like structure G2t seen at larger distances from the
black hole and smaller velocities. In contrast, gas stripped from a compact
cloud by hydrodynamical interactions is not able to explain the location of the
detected G2t emission in the observed position-velocity diagrams. This favors
the Spherical Shell Scenario and might be a severe problem for the Compact
Cloud as well as the so-called Compact Source Scenario. From these first
idealized simulations we expect a roughly constant feeding of the supermassive
black hole through a nozzle-like structure over a long period, starting shortly
after the closest approach in 2013.51 for the Compact Cloud. If the matter
accretes in the hot accretion mode, we do not expect a significant boost of the
current activity of Sgr A* for the Compact Cloud model, but a boost of the
average infrared and X-ray luminosity by roughly a factor of 80 for the
Spherical Shell scenario with order of magnitude variations on a timescale of a
few months. The near-future evolution of the cloud will be a sensitive probe of
the conditions of the gas distribution in the milli-parsec environment of the
massive black hole in the Galactic Center.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, accepted by Ap
The interferometric baselines and GRAVITY astrometric error budget
GRAVITY is a new generation beam combination instrument for the VLTI. Its
goal is to achieve microarsecond astrometric accuracy between objects separated
by a few arcsec. This accuracy on astrometric measurements is the most
important challenge of the instrument, and careful error budget have been
paramount during the technical design of the instrument. In this poster, we
will focus on baselines induced errors, which is part of a larger error budget.Comment: SPIE Meeting 2014 -- Montrea
Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Observations of Sgr A* during 2007 April 1-11
We report the detection of variable emission from Sgr A* in almost all
wavelength bands (i.e. centimeter, millimeter, submillimeter, near-IR and
X-rays) during a multi-wavelength observing campaign. Three new moderate flares
are detected simultaneously in both near-IR and X-ray bands. The ratio of X-ray
to near-IR flux in the flares is consistent with inverse Compton scattering of
near-IR photons by submillimeter emitting relativistic particles which follow
scaling relations obtained from size measurements of Sgr A*. We also find that
the flare statistics in near-IR wavelengths is consistent with the probability
of flare emission being inversely proportional to the flux. At millimeter
wavelengths, the presence of flare emission at 43 GHz (7mm) using VLBA with
milli-arcsecond spatial resolution indicates the first direct evidence that
hourly time scale flares are localized within the inner 3070
Schwarzschild radii of Sgr A*. We also show several cross correlation plots
between near-IR, millimeter and submillimeter light curves that collectively
demonstrate the presence of time delays between the peaks of emission up to
three hours. The evidence for time delays at millimeter and submillimeter
wavelengths are consistent with the source of emission being optically thick
initially followed by a transition to an optically thin regime. In particular,
there is an intriguing correlation between the optically thin near-IR and X-ray
flare and optically thick radio flare at 43 GHz that occurred on 2007 April 4.
This would be the first evidence of a radio flare emission at 43 GHz delayed
with respect to the near-IR and X-ray flare emission.Comment: replaced with revised version 57 pages, 28 figures, ApJ (in press
Physics of the Galactic Center Cloud G2, on its Way towards the Super-Massive Black Hole
The origin, structure and evolution of the small gas cloud, G2, is
investigated, that is on an orbit almost straight into the Galactic central
supermassive black hole (SMBH). G2 is a sensitive probe of the hot accretion
zone of Sgr A*, requiring gas temperatures and densities that agree well with
models of captured shock-heated stellar winds. Its mass is equal to the
critical mass below which cold clumps would be destroyed quickly by
evaporation. Its mass is also constrained by the fact that at apocenter its
sound crossing timescale was equal to its orbital timescale. Our numerical
simulations show that the observed structure and evolution of G2 can be well
reproduced if it formed in pressure equilibrium with the surrounding in 1995 at
a distance from the SMBH of 7.6e16 cm. If the cloud would have formed at
apocenter in the 'clockwise' stellar disk as expected from its orbit, it would
be torn into a very elongated spaghetti-like filament by 2011 which is not
observed. This problem can be solved if G2 is the head of a larger, shell-like
structure that formed at apocenter. Our numerical simulations show that this
scenario explains not only G2's observed kinematical and geometrical properties
but also the Br_gamma observations of a low surface brightness gas tail that
trails the cloud. In 2013, while passing the SMBH G2 will break up into a
string of droplets that within the next 30 years mix with the surrounding hot
gas and trigger cycles of AGN activity.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Ap
An evolving hot spot orbiting around Sgr A*
Here we report on recent near-infrared observations of the Sgr A* counterpart
associated with the super-massive ~ 4x10^6 M_sun black hole at the Galactic
Center. We find that the May 2007 flare shows the highest sub-flare contrast
observed until now, as well as evidence for variations in the profile of
consecutive sub-flares. We modeled the flare profile variations according to
the elongation and change of the shape of a spot due to differential rotation
within the accretion disk.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, contribution for the conference "The Universe
under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), to be published in Journal of Physics:
Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishin
Strong Gravitational Lensing by Sgr A*
In recent years, there has been increasing recognition of the potential of
the galactic center as a probe of general relativity in the strong field. There
is almost certainly a black hole at Sgr A* in the galactic center, and this
would allow us the opportunity to probe dynamics near the exterior of the black
hole. In the last decade, there has been research into extreme gravitational
lensing in the galactic center. Unlike in most applications of gravitational
lensing, where the bending angle is of the order of several arc seconds, very
large bending angles are possible for light that closely approaches a black
hole. Photons may even loop multiple times around a black hole before reaching
the observer. There have been many proposals to use light's close approach to
the black hole as a probe of the black hole metric. Of particular interest is
the property of light lensed by the S stars orbiting in the galactic center.
This paper will review some of the attempts made to study extreme lensing as
well as extend the analysis of lensing by S stars. In particular, we are
interested in the effect of a Reissner-Nordstrom like 1/r^2 term in the metric
and how this would affect the properties of relativistic images.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Submitted as invited review article for the GR19
issue of CQ
Geodetic precession and strong gravitational lensing in the dynamical Chern-Simons modified gravity
We have investigated the geodetic precession and the strong gravitational
lensing in the slowly-rotating black hole in the dynamical Chern-Simons
modified gravity theory. We present the formulas of the orbital period and
the geodetic precession angle for the timelike particles in the
circular orbits around the black hole, which shows that the change of the
geodetic precession angle with the Chern-Simons coupling parameter is
converse to the change of the orbital period with for fixed . We also
discuss the effects of the Chern-Simons coupling parameter on the strong
gravitational lensing when the light rays pass close to the black hole and
obtain that for the stronger Chern-Simons coupling the prograde photons may be
captured more easily, and conversely, the retrograde photons is harder to be
captured in the slowly-rotating black hole in the dynamical Chern-Simons
modified gravity. Supposing that the gravitational field of the supermassive
central object of the Galaxy can be described by this metric, we estimated the
numerical values of the main observables for gravitational lensing in the
strong field limit.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, more clarifications and references added,
accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit
An Inverse Compton Scattering Origin of X-ray Flares from Sgr A*
The X-ray and near-IR emission from Sgr A* is dominated by flaring, while a
quiescent component dominates the emission at radio and sub-mm wavelengths. The
spectral energy distribution of the quiescent emission from Sgr A* peaks at
sub-mm wavelengths and is modeled as synchrotron radiation from a thermal
population of electrons in the accretion flow, with electron temperatures
ranging up to \,MeV. Here we investigate the mechanism by which
X-ray flare emission is produced through the interaction of the quiescent and
flaring components of Sgr A*. The X-ray flare emission has been interpreted as
inverse Compton, self-synchrotron-Compton, or synchrotron emission. We present
results of simultaneous X-ray and near-IR observations and show evidence that
X-ray peak flare emission lags behind near-IR flare emission with a time delay
ranging from a few to tens of minutes. Our Inverse Compton scattering modeling
places constraints on the electron density and temperature distributions of the
accretion flow and on the locations where flares are produced. In the context
of this model, the strong X-ray counterparts to near-IR flares arising from the
inner disk should show no significant time delay, whereas near-IR flares in the
outer disk should show a broadened and delayed X-ray flare.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, AJ (in press
SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z~2 UV-selected Galaxies: Rotation Curves and Dynamical Evolution
We present 0.5" resolution near-IR integral field spectroscopy of the Ha line
emission of 14 z~2 UV-selected BM/BX galaxies obtained with SINFONI at ESO/VLT.
The mean Ha half-light radius r_1/2 is about 4kpc and line emission is detected
over > ~20kpc in several sources. In 9 sources, we detect spatially-resolved
velocity gradients, from 40 to 410 km/s over ~10kpc. The observed kinematics of
the larger systems are consistent with orbital motions. Four galaxies are well
described by rotating disks with clumpy morphologies and we extract rotation
curves out to radii > ~10kpc. One or two galaxies exhibit signatures more
consistent with mergers. Analyzing all 14 galaxies in the framework of rotating
disks, we infer mean inclination- and beam-corrected maximum circular
velocities v_c of 180+-90 km/s and dynamical masses of (0.5-25)x10^10 Msun
within r_1/2. On average, the dynamical masses are consistent with photometric
stellar masses assuming a Chabrier/Kroupa IMF but too small for a 0.1-100 Msun
Salpeter IMF. The specific angular momenta of our BM/BX galaxies are similar to
those of local late-type galaxies. The specific angular momenta of their
baryons are comparable to those of their dark matter halos. Extrapolating from
the average v_c at 10kpc, the virial mass of the typical halo of a galaxy in
our sample is 10^(11.7+-0.5) Msun. Kinematic modeling of the 3 best cases
implies a ratio of v_c to local velocity dispersion of order 2-4 and
accordingly a large geometric thickness. We argue that this suggests a mass
accretion (alternatively, gas exhaustion) timescale of ~500Myr. We also argue
that if our BM/BX galaxies were initially gas rich, their clumpy disks will
subsequently lose their angular momentum and form compact bulges on a timescale
of ~1 Gyr. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 17 pages, 5
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