Gravitationally Lensed X-Ray Sources at the Galactic Center

Details Gravitationally Lensed X-Ray Sources at the Galactic Center Gravitationally Lensed X-Ray Sources at the Galactic Center

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21925204c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #252.04

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Scientific paper

More than two thousand x-ray sources located within 20 pc of the Galactic Center (GC) have been identified by Muno et al. (2003). If an x-ray source is located behind the Galactic Center and offset by a small angle from the GC projected on the sky, then that x-ray source could be gravitationally lensed. The consequences of finding gravitationally lensed sources at the Galactic Center include the ability to independently measure the mass of the GC as well as provide a new probe of the density distribution of the GC (e.g. Wardle & Yusef-Zadeh 1992). Inspecting x-ray images of the GC we
were immediately drawn to a set of four x-ray objects. The identified objects are cataloged as CXOJ 174541.0-290014, 174540.1-290005, 174540.0-290031, and 174538.1-290022. These are the brightest and most obvious variable x-ray objects whose positions suggest patterns of images that may either be an inclined quad or two sets of dual gravitational lens patterns. Based on the image patterns, and image brightnesses and relative variations, we modeled possible lens systems using two algorithms. Both of the algorithms describing gravitational lenses are based on the Fermat potential and its time derivatives. For a lens radius of R = 0.01 pc, the total enclosed mass is 2.6 x 107 M&sun; and for R = 0.001 pc, the total enclosed mass is 2.6 x 105 M&sun;. These masses are consistent with other measurements of the mass of the GC, such as 4.5 x 106 M&sun;
(Ghez et al. 2008). We will present these results and our plans to further study the nature of these x-ray objects.

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