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Probing dense environments around Sgr A* with S-stars dynamics

5 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

5 Pith papers citing it
abstract

The orbits of stars around Sgr A*, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, provide a unique laboratory for testing its environment with unprecedented precision. In this work, we compute the apsidal precession induced by extended matter distributions through Lagrange's equations and compare it with the measured precession of S2, reproducing and extending GRAVITY's constraints. In particular, we push bounds on boson clouds to larger gravitational couplings $\alpha$ and to the second-fastest superradiant mode. We also show that environments with mass of order $1\%$ of Sgr A* drive stellar orbits to decay by dynamical friction within a few Myr. The inner star cluster is however efficiently replenished, masking this effect observationally. We also show that orbital resonances from boson clouds have no impact on relevant timescales. While S2 currently provides the cleanest dataset, our framework is readily applicable to other stars that we identify as particularly promising, whose orbits will be measured with increasing accuracy, opening up new opportunities to probe the environment of Sgr A*.

citation-role summary

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citation-polarity summary

fields

gr-qc 3 hep-ph 2

years

2026 2 2025 3

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 5

roles

background 3

polarities

background 3

representative citing papers

Stellar Superradiance and Low-Energy Absorption in Dense Nuclear Media

hep-ph · 2025-12-15 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Collective nucleon scattering in neutron-star matter suppresses the effective absorption of ultralight bosons at the long wavelengths relevant for superradiance, weakening the link between stellar cooling bounds and superradiant instability rates.

Scalar fields around black hole binaries in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA

gr-qc · 2025-10-20 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Semi-analytic waveform model for scalar environments around black hole binaries is validated against numerical relativity and applied to LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data to obtain upper limits on scalar densities with tentative evidence in GW190728.

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Showing 5 of 5 citing papers.