Testing properties of the Galactic center black hole using stellar orbits

Journal Article · Mon Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.062002· OSTI ID:21409364

Merritt, David; Alexander, Tal; Mikkola, Seppo; Will, Clifford M ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)

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.

• OSTI ID: 21409364
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.062002; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BLACK HOLES
DISTRIBUTION
DISTURBANCES
GALAXY NUCLEI
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
ORBITS
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUADRUPOLE MOMENTS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SIMULATION
SPIN
STARS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ENERGY RANGE
FIELD THEORIES
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
RELATIVITY THEORY