Dark photon solitons emit photons through external-field dipole radiation and kinetic mixing, offering a novel astrophysical signature for wave-like dark matter.
The distribution of stars around the Milky Way's central black hole II: Diffuse light from sub-giants and dwarfs
2 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
This is the second of three papers that search for the predicted stellar cusp around the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, with new data and methods. We aim to infer the distribution of the faintest stellar population currently accessible through observations around Sagittarius A*. We use adaptive optics assisted high angular resolution images obtained with the NACO instrument at the ESO VLT. Through optimised PSF fitting we remove the light from all detected stars above a given magnitude limit. Subsequently we analyse the remaining, diffuse light density. The analysed diffuse light arises from sub-giant and main-sequence stars with KS ~ 19 - 20 with masses of 1 - 2 Msol . These stars can be old enough to be dynamically relaxed. The observed power-law profile and its slope are consistent with the existence of a relaxed stellar cusp around the Milky Way's central black hole. We find that a Nuker law provides an adequate description of the nuclear cluster's intrinsic shape (assuming spherical symmetry). The 3D power-law slope near Sgr A* is \gamma = 1.23 +- 0.05. At a distance of 0.01 pc from the black hole, we estimate a stellar mass density of 2.3 +- 0.3 x 10^7 Msol pc^-3 and a total enclosed stellar mass of 180 +- 20 Msol. These estimates assume a constant mass-to-light ratio and do not take stellar remnants into account. The fact that no cusp is observed for bright (Ks 16) giant stars at projected distances of roughly 0.1-0.3 pc implies that some mechanism has altered their appearance or distribution.
verdicts
UNVERDICTED 2representative citing papers
Models apsidal precession and dynamical friction from extended matter to extend GRAVITY constraints on boson clouds around Sgr A* and assess impacts on S-star orbits.
citing papers explorer
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Dipole Radiation and Kinetic Mixing from Dark Photon Solitons
Dark photon solitons emit photons through external-field dipole radiation and kinetic mixing, offering a novel astrophysical signature for wave-like dark matter.
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Probing dense environments around Sgr A* with S-stars dynamics
Models apsidal precession and dynamical friction from extended matter to extend GRAVITY constraints on boson clouds around Sgr A* and assess impacts on S-star orbits.