Observations of Sgr A*'s shadow and the S2 star's orbit constrain the Hernquist-type environmental halo compactness to below about 10^-4, while its radial scale stays bimodally degenerate.
The Shortest Known Period Star Orbiting our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole
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abstract
Stars with short orbital periods at the center of our galaxy offer a powerful and unique probe of a supermassive black hole. Over the past 17 years, the W. M. Keck Observatory has been used to image the Galactic center at the highest angular resolution possible today. By adding to this data set and advancing methodologies, we have detected S0-102, a star orbiting our galaxy's supermassive black hole with a period of just 11.5 years. S0-102 doubles the number of stars with full phase coverage and periods less than 20 years. It thereby provides the opportunity with future measurements to resolve degeneracies in the parameters describing the central gravitational potential and to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity in an unexplored regime.
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Multiscale probing of a Hernquist-type environmental black hole spacetime with the Sgr A* shadow and S2 orbital dynamics
Observations of Sgr A*'s shadow and the S2 star's orbit constrain the Hernquist-type environmental halo compactness to below about 10^-4, while its radial scale stays bimodally degenerate.