On the nature of the dark mass in the centre of the Milky Way

Details On the nature of the dark mass in the centre of the Milky Way On the nature of the dark mass in the centre of the Milky Way

Oct 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997mnras.291..219g&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 291, Issue 1, pp. 219-234.

Physics

276

Black Hole Physics, Astrometry, Celestial Mechanics, Stellar Dynamics, Galaxy: Centre, Infrared: General

Scientific paper

We discuss constraints on the properties and nature of the dark mass concentration at the core of the Milky Way. We present 0.15-arcsec astrometric K-band maps in five epochs beween 1992 and 1996. From these we derive imposed stellar proper motions within 3 arcsec of the compact radio source SgrA* whose infrared counterpart may have been detected, for the first time, in a deep image in 1996 June. We also report lambda/Deltalambda~35 speckle spectroscopy and show that several of the SgrA* (infrared) cluster members are likely early-type stars of mass ~15 to 20 Msolar. All available checks, including a first comparison with high-resolution maps that are now becoming available from other groups, support our previous conclusion that there are several fast-moving stars (>=10^3 km s^-1) in the immediate vicinity (0.01 pc) of SgrA*. From the stellar radial and proper motion data, we infer that a dark mass of 2.61 (+/-0.15_stat)(+/-0.35_stat+sys)x10^6 Msolar must reside within about one light-week of the compact radio source. Its density must be 2.2x10^12 Msolar pc^-3 or greater. There is no stable configuration of normal stars, stellar remnants or substellar entities at that density. From an equipartition argument we infer that at least 5 per cent of the dark mass (>=10^5 Msolar) is associated with the compact radio source SgrA* itself and is concentrated on a scale of less than 15 times the Schwarzschild radius of a 2.6x10^6-Msolar black hole. The corresponding density is 3x10^20 Msolar pc^-3 or greater. If one accepts these arguments it is hard to escape the conclusion that there must be a massive black hole at the core of the Milky Way.

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