RELATIVISTIC REDSHIFT EFFECTS AND THE GALACTIC-CENTER STARS
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zuerich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zuerich (Switzerland)
The high pericenter velocities (up to a few percent of light) of the S stars around the Galactic-center black hole suggest that general relativistic effects may be detectable through the time variation of the redshift during pericenter passage. Previous work has computed post-Newtonian perturbations to the stellar orbits. We study the additional redshift effects due to perturbations of the light path (what one may call 'post-Minkowskian' effects), a calculation that can be elegantly formulated as a boundary-value problem. The post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian redshift effects are comparable: both are O(beta{sup 3}) and amount to a few km s{sup -1} at pericenter for the star S2. On the other hand, the post-Minkowskian redshift contribution of spin is O(beta{sup 5}) and much smaller than the O(beta{sup 4}) post-Newtonian effect, which would be {approx}0.1 km s{sup -1} for S2.
- OSTI ID:
- 21394385
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 711, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/711/1/157; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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