Direct Orbital Parameter Estimates of the Young Stellar Disk in the Galactic Center

Details Direct Orbital Parameter Estimates of the Young Stellar Disk in the Galactic Center Direct Orbital Parameter Estimates of the Young Stellar Disk in the Galactic Center

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21940903y&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #409.03

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

The Galactic center (GC) contains both a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and a collection of young, massive WR/O stars, a seemingly paradoxical combination given our current knowledge of star formation. Approximately half of these young stars orbit the black hole in a coherent, clockwise stellar disk. The dynamics of this young population can be used to constrain theories of star formation in the hostile environment of a SMBH. We present high-precision astrometry ( 0.1 mas) of 100 young stars obtained with the Keck telescopes over 16 years, including six years of Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics imaging and spectroscopy. We have extended the radial range of our data set by a factor of three over our previous efforts and detect a single disk of young stars. We have also increased the number of plane-of-the-sky acceleration measurements beyond the central arcsecond by a factor of 10 and as far out as 1.5" ( 0.06 pc), the furthest from the SMBH to date for these young stars. Such measurements allow us to directly estimate stellar orbital parameters, including eccentricities, without making a priori assumptions about disk membership, as has been done in the past. We find no evidence for a bimodal eccentricity distribution. Furthermore, seven of the WR/O stars have eccentricities > 0.2, while many others have eccentricity lower limits of 0.2. This finding renders in situ star formation in a circular disk with a normal IMF around the SMBH unlikely.

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