Testing properties of the Galactic center black hole using stellar orbits

By D. Merritt, T. Alexander, S. Mikkola, C. Will. 2009

138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The spin and quadrupole moment of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center can in principle be measured via astrometric monitoring of stars orbiting at milliparsec distances, allowing tests of general relativistic 'no-hair'theorems. One complicating factor is the presence of perturbations from other stars, which may induce orbital precession of the same order of magnitude as that due to general relativistic effects. The expected number of stars in this region is small enough that full N-body simulations can be carried out. We present the results of a comprehensive set of such simulations, which include a post-Newtonian treatment of spin-orbit effects. A number of possible models for the distribution of stars and stellar remnants are considered. We find that stellar perturbations are likely to obscure the signal due to frame dragging for stars beyond {approx}0.5 mpc from the black hole, while measurement of the quadrupole moment is likely to require observation of stars inside {approx}0.2 mpc. A high fraction of stellar remnants, e.g. 10M{sub {center_dot}}black holes, in this region would make tests of general relativity problematic at all radii. We discuss the possibility of separating the effects of stellar perturbations from those due to general relativity.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/433d6d28de09159cf0703ab846799b5de230fd91

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. R. Genzel
2. T. Johannsen
3. T. Alexander
4. Cosimo Bambi
5. F. Eisenhauer
6. T. Ott
7. Abraham Loeb
8. S. Gillessen

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. Cosimo Bambi
2. T. Johannsen
3. Dimitrios Psaltis
4. V. Cardoso
5. S. Naoz
6. L. Tacconi
7. R. Genzel
8. T. Alexander

Citations in the corpus

• Testing black hole candidates with electromagnetic radiation (2015, methodology): “The idea was proposed in Will (2008) and further explored in Angélil et al. (2010); Merritt et al. (2010).”
• Detection of the Schwarzschild precession in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole (2020, background): “Figure E.1 shows the posterior for fSP.”
• The Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Effect and Its Applications (2016, background): “sion caused by the stellar potential, scalar resonant relaxation or reorientation of the orbital plane due to vector resonant relaxation (Kocsis and Tremaine 2011, 2015) or Lense-Thirring precession (Merritt et al. 2010; Merritt and Vasiliev 2012). For the EKL mechanism of supermassive black hole bi”
• Circularization of Tidally Disrupted Stars around Spinning Supermassive Black Holes (2015, methodology): “…that the enhanced apsidal precession of retrograde black hole spin makes debris circularization more efficient than in the non-spinning black hole case, whereas prograde black hole spin substantially delays debris circularization by decreasing the apsidal precession rate (Merritt et al. 2010).”
• TESTING THE NO-HAIR THEOREM WITH OBSERVATIONS IN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM. II. BLACK HOLE IMAGES (2010, background): “Perhaps more importantly, the same observations may lead in the future to an independent measurement of the spin and orientation of the black hole, as well as to a complementary test of the no-hair theorem (Will 2008; Merritt et al. 2010).”
• Galactic Center gamma-ray ``excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre? (2014, background): “The Galactic Center (GC) represents one of the most interesting environments for astroparticle physics studies: it hosts the closest supermassive black hole, which may allow for interesting tests of General Relativity [1, 2], and it is likely the brightest spot in terms of DM annihilation emission, ”
• PHOTON RINGS AROUND KERR AND KERR-LIKE BLACK HOLES (2013, background): “…for the currently known S-stars in the vicinity of Sgr A*, because their average distances from the center of mass are too large, these precession frequencies might be measurable for stars within ∼ 1000rS of the black hole, if they are monitored over a sufficiently long time (Merritt et al. 2010).”
• Stellar Dynamics and Stellar Phenomena Near a Massive Black Hole (2017, background): “On the one hand, the coherent torques compete with the more subtle relativistic effects, and make tests of strong gravity very challenging (Merritt et al. 2010).”
• TESTING THE NO-HAIR THEOREM WITH OBSERVATIONS IN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM. IV. RELATIVISTICALLY BROADENED IRON LINES (2012, background): “…Vigeland et al. 2011; Gair & Yunes 2011; Rodriguez et al. 2012) and from electromagnetic observations of stars orbiting around Sgr A* (Will 2008; Merritt et al. 2010; Laleh & Will 2011), of pulsar black-hole binaries (Wex & Kopeikin 1999; Liu et al. 2012), as well as of the quasar OJ287…”
• Detection of the gravitational redshift in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole (2018, background): “However, massive, non-luminous objects, such as stellar black holes, might be present and could affect the orbital dynamics of S2 (Gualandris & Merritt 2009; Merritt et al. 2010; Gualandris et al. 2010).”