2,826 research outputs found
Prospects for the Determination of Star Orbits Near the Galactic Center
We simulate the observations of proper motion of stars very close to the
Galactic Center. We show that the speckle interferometry done with the Keck II
telescope is accurate enough to obtain orbital parameters for stars with the
period P about 10 y during 10 seasons of astrometric observations made once a
year. The determination of a single orbit will give central mass estimate with
the typical uncertainty of the existing mass determinations based on velocity
dispersion measurements. A much higher precision orbits will be measured in
several years when Keck Interferometer becomes operational, and fainter stars
are discovered even closer to Sgr A*. Astrometry alone will provide accurate
determination of the ratio: M/D^3, where M is the black hole mass and D is the
distance to the Galactic Center. If spectroscopic orbits of the stars are also
measured then both: M and D will be precisely determined.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ap
Clockwise Stellar Disk and the Dark Mass in the Galactic Center
Two disks of young stars have recently been discovered in the Galactic
Center. The disks are rotating in the gravitational field of the central black
hole at radii r=0.1-0.3 pc and thus open a new opportunity to measure the
central mass. We find that the observed motion of stars in the clockwise disk
implies M=4.3+/-0.5 million solar masses for the fiducial distance to the
Galactic Center R_0=8 kpc and derive the scaling of M with R_0. As a tool for
our estimate we use orbital roulette, a recently developed method. The method
reconstructs the three-dimensional orbits of the disk stars and checks the
randomness of their orbital phases. We also estimate the three-dimensional
positions and orbital eccentricities of the clockwise-disk stars.Comment: Comments: 16 pages, 5 figures, ApJ, in pres
Sgr A* ``Visual Binaries'': A Direct Measurement of the Galactocentric Distance
We present a new geometrical method for measuring the distance to the
Galactic center (R_0) by solving for the Keplerian orbit of individual stars
bound to the black hole associated with the Sgr A* from radial velocity and
proper motion measurements. We identify three stars to which the method may be
applied, and show that 1-5 % accuracy of R_0 can be expected after 15 years of
observing, and 0.5-2 % after 30 years of observing, depending on what the
orbital parameters of these three stars turn out to be. Combining the
measurements of the three stars with favorable orbital parameters leads to even
more precise values. In the example that we present, such combined solution
yields 4 % accuracy already by the year 2002. All these estimates assume that
annual position measurements will continue to be made with the 2 mas precision
recently reported by Ghez et al. The precision of the distance measurement is
relatively insensitive to the radial velocity errors, provided that the latter
are less than 50 km/s. Besides potentially giving an estimate of R_0 that is
better than any currently in use, the greatest advantage of this method is that
it is free from systematic errors.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 14 pages, 8 figure
The need for a second black hole at the Galactic center
Deep infra-red observations and long-term monitoring programs have provided
dynamical evidence for a supermassive black hole of mass 3.e6 solar masses
associated with the radio source Sagitarrius A* at the center of our Galaxy.
The brightest stars orbiting within 0.1 parsecs of the black hole appear to be
young, massive main sequence stars, n spite of an environment near the black
hole that is hostile to star formation. We discuss mechanisms by which stars
born outside the central parsec can sink towards the black hole and conclude
that the drag coming from plausible stellar populations does not operate on the
short timescales required by the stellar ages. We propose that these stars were
dragged in by a second black hole of mass of 1.e3-1.e4 solar masses, which
would be classified as an intermediate-mass black hole. We discuss the
implications for the stellar populations and the kinematics in the Galactic
center. Finally we note that continued astrometric monitoring of the central
radio source offers the prospect for a direct detection of such objects.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figures, submitted to ApJ letters The
introduction section has been updated since submission to Ap
Ultra-Luminous Infrared Mergers: Elliptical Galaxies in Formation?
We report high quality near-infrared spectroscopy of 12 ultra-luminous
infrared galaxy mergers (ULIRGs). Our new VLT and Keck data provide ~0.5"
resolution, stellar and gas kinematics of these galaxies most of which are
compact systems in the last merger stages.
We confirm that ULIRG mergers are 'ellipticals-in-formation'. Random motions
dominate their stellar dynamics, but significant rotation is common. Gas and
stellar dynamics are decoupled in most systems. ULIRGs fall on or near the
fundamental plane of hot stellar systems, and especially on its less evolution
sensitive, r(eff)-sigma projection. The ULIRG velocity dispersion distribution,
their location in the fundamental plane and their distribution of
v(rot)*sin(i)/sigma closely resemble those of intermediate mass (~L*),
elliptical galaxies with moderate rotation. As a group ULIRGs do not resemble
giant ellipticals with large cores and little rotation. Our results are in good
agreement with other recent studies indicating that disky ellipticals with
compact cores or cusps can form through dissipative mergers of gas rich, disk
galaxies while giant ellipticals with large cores have a different formation
history.Comment: submitted to Ap
Near-Infrared-Spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescopes: Integral-Field- versus Multi-Object-Instruments
Integral-field-spectroscopy and multi-object-spectroscopy provide the high
multiplex gain required for efficient use of the upcoming generation of
extremely large telescopes. We present instrument developments and designs for
both concepts, and how these designs can be applied to cryogenic near-infrared
instrumentation. Specifically, the fiber-based concept stands out the
possibility to expand it to any number of image points, and its modularity
predestines it to become the new concept for multi-field-spectroscopy. Which of
the three concepts --- integral-field-, multi-object-, or
multi-field-spectroscopy --- is best suited for the largest telescopes is
discussed considering the size of the objects and their density on the sky.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures (converted to bitmap), to appear in the
proceedings of the Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, Sweden, June 1-2,
1999, uses spie.sty (V0.91) and spiebib.bst (V0.91
Structural perfection of Hg1âxCdxTe Grown by THM
The defect structure of single crystals of Hg1-xCdxTe grown by the travelling heater method (THM) has been investigated using X-ray double crystal topography and a chemical etching technique. The structural perfection is found to depend on the ratio of growth and solidus temperature Tg/Ts
Measures of galaxy dust and gas mass with Herschel photometry and prospects for ALMA
(Abridged) Combining the deepest Herschel extragalactic surveys (PEP,
GOODS-H, HerMES), and Monte Carlo mock catalogs, we explore the robustness of
dust mass estimates based on modeling of broad band spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) with two popular approaches: Draine & Li (2007, DL07) and
a modified black body (MBB). As long as the observed SED extends to at least
160-200 micron in the rest frame, M(dust) can be recovered with a >3 sigma
significance and without the occurrence of systematics. An average offset of a
factor ~1.5 exists between DL07- and MBB-based dust masses, based on consistent
dust properties. At the depth of the deepest Herschel surveys (in the GOODS-S
field) it is possible to retrieve dust masses with a S/N>=3 for galaxies on the
main sequence of star formation (MS) down to M(stars)~1e10 [M(sun)] up to z~1.
At higher redshift (z<=2) the same result is achieved only for objects at the
tip of the MS or lying above it. Molecular gas masses, obtained converting
M(dust) through the metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust ratio delta(GDR), are
consistent with those based on the scaling of depletion time, and on CO
spectroscopy. Focusing on CO-detected galaxies at z>1, the delta(GDR)
dependence on metallicity is consistent with the local relation. We combine
far-IR Herschel data and sub-mm ALMA expected fluxes to study the advantages of
a full SED coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Some figures
have degraded quality for filesize reason
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