by Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Penna, Robert F. and McKinney, Jonathan C.
17 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ

The constraints on Sgr A* black hole (BH) and accretion flow parameters are found by fitting polarized sub-mm observations. The observations from 29 papers are averaged into a quasi-quiescent set. We run three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical (3D GRMHD) simulations for dimensionless spins a=0,0.5,0.7,0.9,0.98 till 20000M, construct an averaged dynamical model, perform GR polarized radiative transfer, and explore the parameter space of spin $latex a$, inclination angle \theta, position angle (PA), accretion rate \dot{M}, and electron temperature $latex T_e$ at 6M radius. The best-fitting model for spin a=0.9 gives \chi^2=0.99 with \theta=59deg, \dot{M}=1.3*10^{-8}M_sun/year, T_e=3.2*10^{10}K at 6M, the best-fitting model for spin a=0.5 gives \chi^2=0.84 with \theta=70deg, \dot{M}=7.0*10^{-8}M_sun/year, and T_p/T_e=22 at 6M with T_e=3.50*10^{10}K. We identify the physical phenomena leading to the matched linear polarization (LP), circular polarization (CP), and electric vector position angle (EVPA). Our statistical analysis reveals the most probable spin is a=0.9. The spin a=0.5 solutions are 10 times less probable despite giving lower minimum \chi^2 and spin a=0 is excluded as having probability P(a)<1%. Polarized data allows us to tightly constrain some quantities. Inclination angle, electron temperature, and position angle have ranges \theta=59+/-9deg, T_e=(3.4+1.2/-0.9)*10^{10}K, and PA=96+/-30deg with 90% confidence. The total range of accretion rate is large, but assuming spin a=0.9 we get \dot{M}(0.9)=(13+4/-3)*10^{-9}M_sun/year interval with 90% confidence. The emission region sizes at 230GHz of the best-fitting models are found to be marginally consistent with the observed by VLBI technique.

by Alexander, Tal
Invited overview lecture in “The Galactic Center, a window to the nuclear environment of disk galaxies” (Shanghai 19-23/10/2009). To appear in ASP Conf. Proc. Ser. “Galactic center workshop 2009″ ed. Mark Morris (12 pp 5 fig)

I discuss four key questions about Galactic Center dynamics, their implications for understanding both the environment of the Galactic MBH and galactic nuclei in general, and the progress made in addressing them. The questions are (1) Is the stellar system around the MBH relaxed? (2) Is there a “dark cusp” around the MBH? (3) What is the origin of the stellar disk(s)?, and (4) What is the origin of the S-stars?

by Angelil, Raymond and Saha, Prasenjit and Merritt, David
20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the ApJ

The S stars orbiting the Galactic center black hole reach speeds of up to a few percent the speed of light during pericenter passage. This makes, for example, S2 at pericenter much more relativistic than known binary pulsars, and opens up new possibilities for testing general relativity. This paper develops a technique for fitting nearly-Keplerian orbits with perturbations from Schwarzschild curvature, frame dragging, and spin-induced torque, to redshift measurements distributed along the orbit but concentrated around pericenter. Both orbital and light-path effects are taken into account. It turns out that absolute calibration of rest-frame frequency is not required. Hence, if pulsars on orbits similar to the S stars are discovered, the technique described here can be applied without change, allowing the much greater accuracies of pulsar timing to be taken advantage of. For example, pulse timing of 3 microsec over one hour amounts to an effective redshift precision of 30 cm/s, enough to measure frame dragging and the quadrupole moment from an S2-like orbit, provided problems like the Newtonian “foreground” due to other masses can be overcome. On the other hand, if stars with orbital periods of order a month are discovered, the same could be accomplished with stellar spectroscopy from the E-ELT at the level of 1 km/s.

by Genzel, Reinhard and Eisenhauer, Frank and Gillessen, Stefan
submitted to Rev.Mod.Phys.,comments are welcome

The Galactic Center is an excellent laboratory for studying phenomena and physical occurring in many other galactic nuclei. The Center of our Milky Way is by far the closest galactic nucleus, and observations with exquisite resolution and sensitivity cover 18 orders of magnitude in energy of electromagnetic radiation. Theoretical simulations have become increasingly more powerful in explaining these measurements. This review summarizes the recent progress in observational and theoretical work on the central parsec, with a strong emphasis on the current empirical evidence for a central massive black hole and on the properties of the surrounding dense star cluster. We present the current evidence, from the analysis of the orbits of more than two dozen stars and from the measurements of the size and motion of the central compact radio source, Sgr A*, that this radio source must be a massive black hole of about 4.4 x 106 M_\odot, beyond any reasonable doubt. We report what is known about the structure and evolution of the dense nuclear star cluster surrounding this black hole, including the astounding fact that stars have been forming in the vicinity of Sgr A* recently, apparently with a top-heavy stellar mass function. We discuss a dense concentration of fainter stars centered in the immediate vicinity of the massive black hole, three of which have orbital peri-bothroi of less than one light day. This ‘S-star cluster’ appears to consist mainly of young early-type stars, in contrast to the predicted properties of an equilibrium ’stellar cusp’ around a black hole. This constitutes a remarkable and presently not fully understood ‘paradox of youth’. We also summarize more briefly what is known about the emission properties of the accreting gas onto Sgr A* and how this emission is beginning to delineate the physical properties in the hot accretion zone around the event horizon.

by Kocsis, Bence and Tremaine, Scott
16 pages, 8 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Observations of the spatial distribution and kinematics of young stars in the Galactic centre can be interpreted as showing that the stars occupy one, or possibly two, discs of radii ~0.05-0.5 pc. The most prominent (`clockwise’) disc exhibits a strong warp: the normals to the mean orbital planes in the inner and outer third of the disc differ by ~60 deg. Using an analytical model based on Laplace-Lagrange theory, we show that such warps arise naturally and inevitably through vector resonant relaxation between the disc and the surrounding old stellar cluster.

by Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Baganoff, Frederick K.
6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJL

We propose a two-temperature radial inflow-outflow model near Sgr A* with self-consistent feeding and conduction. Stellar winds from individual stars are considered to find the rates of mass injection and energy injection. These source terms help to partially eliminate the boundary conditions on the inflow. Electron thermal conduction is crucial for inhibiting the accretion. Energy diffuses out from several gravitational radii, unbinding more gas at several arcseconds and limiting the accretion rate to <1% of Bondi rate. We successfully fit the X-Ray surface brightness profile found from the extensive Chandra observations and reveal the X-Ray point source in the center. The super-resolution technique allows us to infer the presence and estimate the unabsorbed luminosity $latex L\approx4\cdot10^{32}{\rm erg s^{-1}}$ of the point source. The employed relativistic heat capacity and direct heating of electrons naturally lead to low electron temperature $latex T_e\approx 4\cdot10^{10}$ K near the black hole. Within the same model we fit 86 GHz optically thick emission and obtain the order of magnitude agreement of Faraday rotation measure, thus achieving a single accretion model suitable at all radii.

by Yusef-Zadeh, F. and Wardle, M.
4 pages, To appear in Proceedings of “X-ray Astronomy 2009: Present Status, Multi-Wavelength Approach and Future Perspectives”, Bologna, Italy, September 7-11, 2009, AIP, eds. A. Comastri, M. Cappi, and L. Angelini

In the last several years, a number of observing campaigns of the massive black hole Sgr A* has been carried out in order to address two important issues: one concerns the underluminous nature of Sgr A* with its bolometric luminosity being several orders of magnitude less than those of its more massive counterparts. It turns out that the angular momentum of the ionized stellar winds from orbiting stars in one or two disks orbiting Sgr A* could be a critical factor in estimating accurately the accretion rate unto Sgr A*. A net angular momentum of ionized gas feeding Sgr A* could lower the Bondi rate. Furthermore, the recent time delay picture of the peak flare emission can be understood in the context of adiabatic expansion of hot plasma. The expansion speed of the plasma is estimated to be sub-relativistic. However, relativistic bulk motion of the plasma could lead to outflow from Sgr A*. Significant outflow from Sgr A* could then act as a feedback which could then reduce Bondi accretion rate. These uncertain factors can in part explain the underluminous nature of Sgr A*. The other issue is related to the emission mechanism and the cause of flare activity in different wavelength bands. Modeling of X-ray and near-IR flares suggests that inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of IR flare photons by the energetic electrons responsible for the submm emission can account for the X-ray flares. A time delay of minutes to tens of minutes is predicted between the peak flaring in the near-IR and X-rays, NOT due to adiabatic expansion of optically thick hot plasma, but to the time taken for IR flare photons to cross the accretion flow before being upscattered.

by Dodds-Eden, K. and Porquet, D. and Trap, G. and Quataert, E. and Gillessen, S. and Grosso, N. and Genzel, R. and Goldwurm, A. and Yusef-Zadeh, F. and Trippe, S. and Bartko, H. and Eisenhauer, F. and Ott, T. and Fritz, T. K. and Pfuhl, O.
Proceedings of the Galactic Center Workshop 2009, Shanghai

We summarize recent observations and modeling of the brightest Sgr A* flare to be observed simultaneously in (near)-infrared and X-rays to date. Trying to explain the spectral characteristics of this flare through inverse Compton mechanisms implies physical parameters that are unrealistic for Sgr A*. Instead, a “cooling break” synchrotron model provides a more feasible explanation for the X-ray emission. In a magnetic field of about 5-30 Gauss the X-ray emitting electrons cool very quickly on the typical dynamical timescale while the NIR-emitting electrons cool more slowly. This produces a spectral break in the model between NIR and X-ray wavelengths that can explain the differences in the observed spectral indices.

by Dong, H. and Wang, Q. D. and Cotera, A. and Stolovy, S. and Morris, M. R. and Mauerhan, J. and Mills, E. A. and Schneider, G. and Lang, C.
10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Galactic Center Workshop 2009, Shanghai

We present preliminary results of our \hst Pa$latex \alpha$ survey of the Galactic Center (\gc), which maps the central 0.65$latex \times$0.25 degrees around Sgr A*. This survey provides us with a more complete inventory of massive stars within the \gc, compared to previous observations. We find 157 Pa$latex \alpha$ emitting sources, which are evolved massive stars. Half of them are located outside of three young massive star clusters near Sgr A*. The loosely spatial distribution of these field sources suggests that they are within less massive star clusters/groups, compared to the three massive ones. Our Pa$latex \alpha$ mosaic not only resolves previously well-known large-scale filaments into fine structures, but also reveals many new extended objects, such as bow shocks and H II regions. In particular, we find two regions with large-scale Pa$latex \alpha$ diffuse emission and tens of Pa$latex \alpha$ emitting sources in the negative Galactic longitude suggesting recent star formation activities, which were not known previously. Furthermore, in our survey, we detect $latex \sim$0.6 million stars, most of which are red giants or AGB stars. Comparisons of the magnitude distribution in 1.90 $latex \mu$m and those from the stellar evolutionary tracks with different star formation histories suggest an episode of star formation process about 350 Myr ago in the \gc .

by Madigan, Ann-Marie
Proceedings article to be published in “The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris, Daniel Q. Wang and Feng Yuan

In this paper we revisit the “eccentric disc instability”, an instability which occurs in coherently eccentric discs of stars orbiting massive black holes (MBHs) embedded in stellar clusters, which results in stars achieving either very high or low eccentricities. The preference for stars to attain higher or lower eccentricities depends significantly on the density distribution of the surrounding stellar cluster. Here we discuss its mechanism and the implications for the Galactic Centre, home to at least one circum-MBH stellar disc.

by Hopman, Clovis and Madigan, Ann-Marie
Proceedings article to be published in “The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris, Daniel Q. Wang and Feng Yuan

Two-body energy exchange between stars orbiting massive black holes (MBHs) leads to the formation of a power-law density distribution n(r)~r^(-a) that diverges towards the MBH. For a single mass population, a=7/4 and the flow of stars is much less than N(<r)/t_r (enclosed number of stars per relaxation time). This "zero-flow" solution is maintained for a multi-mass system for moderate mass ratios or systems where there are many heavy stars, and slopes of 3/2<a<2 are reached, with steeper slopes for the more massive stars. If the heavy stars are rare and massive however, the zero-flow limit breaks down and much steeper distributions are obtained.

We discuss the physics driving mass-segregation with the use of Fokker-Planck calculations, and show that steady state is reached in 0.2-0.3 t_r. Since the relaxation time in the Galactic centre (GC) is t_r ~2-3 * 10^(10) yr, a cusp should form in less than a Hubble time. The absence of a visible cusp of old stars in the GC poses a challenge to these models, suggesting that processes other than two-body relaxation have played a role. We discuss astrophysical processes within the GC that depend crucially on the details of the stellar cusp.

by Moscibrodzka, M. and Gammie, C. F. and Dolence, J. and Shiokawa, H. and Leung, P. K.
To appear in “The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris, Daniel Q. Wang and Feng Yuan

We review results from general relativistic axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion in Sgr A*. We use general relativistic radiative transfer methods and to produce a broad band (from millimeter to gamma-rays) spectrum. Using a ray tracing scheme we also model images of Sgr A* and compare the size of image to the VLBI observations at 230 GHz. We perform a parameter survey and study radiative properties of the flow models for various black hole spins, ion to electron temperature ratios, and inclinations. We scale our models to reconstruct the flux and the spectral slope around 230 GHz. The combination of Monte Carlo spectral energy distribution calculations and 230 GHz image modeling constrains the parameter space of the numerical models. Our models suggest rather high black hole spin ($latex a_*\approx 0.9$), electron temperatures close to the ion temperature ($latex T_i/T_e \sim 3$) and high inclination angles ($latex i \approx 90 \deg$).

by Subr, Ladislav
“The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris, Daniel Q. Wang and Feng Yuan

Models of the origin of young stars in the Galactic Centre are facing various problems. The most promissing scenario of the star formation in a thin self-gravitating disc naturally forms stars on coherently rotating orbits, but it fails to explain origin of several tens of stars that evidently do not belong to any of the disc-like structures in the GC. One possible solution lies in rather complicated initial conditions, assuming at least two infalling and interacting gas clouds. We present alternative solution showing that a single thin stellar disc may have given birth to all young stars in the GC. The outliers are explained as stars that have been stripped from the parent structure due to the gravitational interaction with the gaseous circum-nuclear disc.

by Davies, M. B. and Church, R. P. and Malmberg, D. and Nzoke, S. and Dale, J. and Freitag, M.
To appear in “The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris, Daniel Q. Wang and Feng Yuan

We consider whether stellar collisions can explain the observed depletion of red giants in the galactic center. We model the stellar population with two different IMFs: 1) the Miller-Scalo and 2) a much flatter IMF. In the former case, low-mass main-sequence stars dominate the population, and collisions are unable to remove red giants out to 0.4 pc although brighter red giants much closer in may be depleted via collisions with stellar-mass black holes. For a much flatter IMF, the stellar population is dominated by compact remnants (ie black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars). The most common collisions are then those between main-sequence stars and compact remnants. Such encounters are likely to destroy the main-sequence stars and thus prevent their evolution into red giants. In this way, the red-giant population could be depleted out to 0.4 pc matching observations. If this is the case, it implies the galactic center contains a much larger population of stellar-mass black holes than would be expected from a regular IMF. This may in turn have implications for the formation and growth of the central supermassive black hole.

by Buchholz, R. M. and Schoedel, R. and Eckart, A.
Proceedings article for the Galactic Center Workshop 2009, Shanghai. The conference proceedings will be published in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series

We present a population analysis of the nuclear stellar cluster of the Milky Way based on adaptive optics narrow band spectral energy distributions. We find strong evidence for the lack of a stellar cusp and a similarity of the late type luminosity function to the bulge KLF.

by Schoedel, Rainer
Proceedings article for the Galactic Center Workshop 2009, Shanghai. The conference proceedings will be published in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series

Nuclear star clusters are located at the dynamical centers of the majority of galaxies. They are usually the densest and most massive star cluster in their host galaxy. In this article, I will give a brief overview of our current knowledge on nuclear star clusters and their formation. Subsequently, I will introduce the nuclear star cluster at the center of the Milky Way, that surrounds the massive black hole, Sagittarius A*. This cluster is a unique template for understanding nuclear star clusters in general because it is the only one of its kind which we can resolve into individual stars. Thus, we can study its structure, dynamics, and population in detail. I will summarize our current knowledge of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster, discuss its relation with nuclear clusters in other galaxies, and point out where further research is needed.

by Bartko, H.
Proceedings of the Galactic Center Workshop 2009, Shanghai

We summarize our latest observations of the nuclear star cluster in the central parsec of the Galaxy with the adaptive optics assisted, integral field spectrograph SINFONI on the ESO/VLT, which result in a total sample of 177 bona fide early-type stars. We find that most of these Wolf Rayet (WR), O- and B- stars reside in two strongly warped eccentric ( = 0.36+/-0.06) disks between 0.8″ and 12″ from SgrA*, as well as a central compact concentration (the S-star cluster) centered on SgrA*. The later type B stars (mK>15) in the radial interval between 0.8″ and 12″ seem to be in a more isotropic distribution outside the disks. We observe a dearth of late-type stars in the central few arcseconds, which is puzzling. The stellar mass function of the disk stars is extremely top-heavy with a best fit power law of dN/dm~m^(-0.45+/-0.3). Since at least the WR/O-stars were formed in situ in a single star formation event ~6 Myrs ago, this mass function probably reflects the initial mass function (IMF). The mass functions of the S-stars inside 0.8″ and of the early-type stars at distances beyond 12″ differ significantly from the disk IMF; they are compatible with a standard Salpeter/Kroupa IMF (best fit power law of dN/dm~m^(-2.15+/-0.3).

by Sabha, N. and Witzel, G. and Eckart, A. and Buchholz, R. M. and Bremer, M. and Giessuebel, R. and Garcia-Marin, M. and Kunneriath, D. and Muzic, K. and Schoedel, R. and Straubmeier, C. and Zamaninasab, M. and Zernickel, A.
18 pages, 13 figures, accepted by A&A

We discuss mm-wavelength radio, 2.2-11.8um NIR and 2-10 keV X-ray light curves of the super massive black hole (SMBH) counterpart of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) near its lowest and highest observed luminosity states. The luminosity during the low state can be interpreted as synchrotron emission from a continuous or even spotted accretion disk. For the high luminosity state SSC emission from THz peaked source components can fully account for the flux density variations observed in the NIR and X-ray domain. We conclude that at near-infrared wavelengths the SSC mechanism is responsible for all emission from the lowest to the brightest flare from SgrA*. For the bright flare event of 4 April 2007 that was covered from the radio to the X-ray domain, the SSC model combined with adiabatic expansion can explain the related peak luminosities and different widths of the flare profiles obtained in the NIR and X-ray regime as well as the non detection in the radio domain.

by Shcherbakov, Roman V. and Baganoff, Frederick K.
3 pages, 2 figures; to be published in “The Galactic Center: a Window to the Nuclear Activity of Disk Galaxies”, ed. Mark Morris et al., Astron. Soc. Pacific, 2010

We propose a 2-temperature radial dynamical model of plasma flow near Sgr A* and fit the bremsstrahlung emission to extensive quiescent X-Ray Chandra data. The model extends from several arcseconds to black hole (BH) gravitational radius, describing the outer accretion flow together with the infalling region. The model incorporates electron heat conduction, relativistic heat capacity of particles and feeding by stellar winds. Stellar winds from each star are considered separately as sources of mass, momentum and energy. Self-consistent search for the stagnation and sonic points is performed. Most of gas is found to outflow from the region. The accretion rate is limited to below 1% of Bondi rate due to the effect of thermal conduction enhanced by entropy production in a turbulent flow. The X-Ray brightness profile proves too steep near the BH, thus a synchrotron self-Compton point source is inferred with luminosity L=3×10^32erg/s. We fit the sub-mm emission from the inner flow, thus aiming at a single model of Sgr A* accretion suitable at any radius.

by Zamaninasab, M. and Eckart, A. and Witzel, G. and Dovciak, M. and Karas, V. and Giessuebel, R. Schoedel R. and Bremer, M. and Garcia-Marin, M. and Kunneriath, D. and Muzic, K. and Nishiyama, S. and Sabha, N. and Straubmeier, C. and Zensus, A.
26 pages, 38 figures, accepted for publication by A&A

We report on the results of new simulations of near-infrared (NIR) observations of the Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) counterpart associated with the super-massive black hole at the Galactic Center. The observations have been carried out using the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and CIAO NIR camera on the Subaru telescope (13 June 2004, 30 July 2005, 1 June 2006, 15 May 2007, 17 May 2007 and 28 May 2008). We used a model of synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in the inner parts of an accretion disk. The relativistic simulations have been carried out using the Karas-Yaqoob (KY) ray-tracing code. We probe the existence of a correlation between the modulations of the observed flux density light curves and changes in polarimetric data. Furthermore, we confirm that the same correlation is also predicted by the hot spot model. Correlations between intensity and polarimetric parameters of the observed light curves as well as a comparison of predicted and observed light curve features through a pattern recognition algorithm result in the detection of a signature of orbiting matter under the influence of strong gravity. This pattern is detected statistically significant against randomly polarized red noise. Expected results from future observations of VLT interferometry like GRAVITY experiment are also discussed.

by Merritt, David and Alexander, Tal and Mikkola, Seppo and Will, Clifford M.
18 pages, 9 figures

The spin and quadrupole moment of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center can in principle be measured via astrometric monitoring of stars orbiting at milliparsec (mpc) distances, allowing tests of general relativistic “no-hair” theorems (Will 2008). One complicating factor is the presence of perturbations from other stars, which may induce orbital precession of the same order of magnitude as that due to general relativistic effects. The expected number of stars in this region is small enough that full N-body simulations can be carried out. We present the results of a comprehensive set of such simulations, which include a post-Newtonian treatment of spin-orbit effects. A number of possible models for the distribution of stars and stellar remnants are considered. We find that stellar perturbations are likely to obscure the signal due to frame-dragging for stars beyond ~0.5 mpc from the black hole, while measurement of the quadrupole moment is likely to require observation of stars inside ~0.2 mpc. A high fraction of stellar remnants, e.g. 10-Solar-mass black holes, in this region would make tests of GR problematic at all radii. We discuss the possibility of separating the effects of stellar perturbations from those due to GR.

by Loeckmann, Ulf and Baumgardt, Holger and Kroupa, Pavel
MNRAS, accepted, 8 pages, 4 figures

(abridged) Here we discuss the question whether the extreme circumstances in the centre of the Milky Way may be the reason for a significant variation of the IMF. By means of stellar evolution models using different codes we show that the observed luminosity in the central parsec is too high to be explained by a long-standing top-heavy IMF, considering the limited amount of mass inferred from stellar kinematics in this region. In contrast, continuous star formation over the Galaxy’s lifetime following a canonical IMF results in a mass-to-light ratio and a total mass of stellar black holes (SBHs) consistent with the observations. Furthermore, these SBHs migrate towards the centre due to dynamical friction, turning the cusp of visible stars into a core as observed in the Galactic Centre. For the first time here we explain the luminosity and dynamical mass of the central cluster and both the presence and extent of the observed core, since the number of SBHs expected from a canonical IMF is just enough to make up for the missing luminous mass. We conclude that the Galactic Centre is consistent with the canonical IMF and do not suggest a systematic variation as a result of the region’s properties such as high density, metallicity, strong tidal field etc.

by Rajesh, S. R. and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata
25 pages including 22 figures; to appear in MNRAS

We investigate the viscous two temperature accretion discs around rotating black holes. We describe the global solution of accretion flows with a sub-Keplerian angular momentum profile, by solving the underlying conservation equations including explicit cooling processes selfconsistently. Bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and inverse Comptonization of soft photons are considered as possible cooling mechanisms, for sub-Eddington, Eddington and super-Eddington mass accretion rates around Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes with a Kerr parameter 0.998. It is found that the flow, during its infall from the Keplerian to sub-Keplerian transition region to the black hole event horizon, passes through various phases of advection — general advective paradigm to radiatively inefficient phase and vice versa. Hence the flow governs much lower electron temperature ~10^8-10^{9.5} K, in the range of accretion rate in Eddington units 0.01 <~ \mdot <~ 100, compared to the hot protons of temperature ~ 10^{10.2} – 10^{11.8}K. Therefore, the solution may potentially explain the hard X-rays and \gamma-rays emitted from AGNs and X-ray binaries. We then show that a weakly viscous flow is expected to be cooling dominated, particularly at the inner region of the disc, compared to its highly viscous counterpart which is radiatively inefficient. With all the solutions in hand, we finally reproduce the observed luminosities of the under-fed AGNs and quasars (e.g. Sgr A^*) to ultra-luminous X-ray sources (e.g. SS433), at different combinations of input parameters such as mass accretion rate, ratio of specific heats. The set of solutions also predicts appropriately the luminosity observed in the highly luminous AGNs and ultra-luminous quasars (e.g. PKS 0743-67).

by Lu, Youjun and Zhang, Fupeng and Yu, Qingjuan
7 pages, 5 figures

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) escaping away from the Galactic halo are dynamical products of interactions of stars with the massive black hole(s) (MBH) in the Galactic Center (GC). They are mainly B-type stars with their progenitors unknown. OB stars are also populated in the GC, with many being hosted in a clockwise-rotating young stellar (CWS) disk within half a parsec from the MBH and their formation remaining puzzles. In this paper, we demonstrate that HVSs can well memorize the injecting directions of their progenitors using both analytical arguments and numerical simulations, i.e., the ejecting direction of an HVS is almost anti-parallel to the injecting direction of its progenitor. Therefore, the spatial distribution of HVSs maps the spatial distribution of the parent population of their progenitors directly. We also find that almost all the discovered HVSs are spatially consistent with being located on two thin disk planes. The orientation of one plane is consistent with that of the (inner) CWS disk, which suggests that most of the HVSs originate from the CWS disk or a previously existed disk-like stellar structure with an orientation similar to it. The rest of HVSs may be correlated with the plane of the northern arm of the mini-spiral in the GC or the plane defined by the outer warped part of the CWS disk. Our results not only support the GC origin of HVSs but also imply that the central disk (or the disk structure with a similar orientation) should persist or be frequently rejuvenated over the past 200 Myr, which adds a new challenge to the stellar disk formation and provides insights to the longstanding problem of gas fueling into massive black holes.

by Gillessen, S. and Eisenhauer, F. and Fritz, T. K. and Bartko, H. and Dodds-Eden, K. and Pfuhl, O. and Ott, T. and Genzel, R.
submitted to ApJL

Two recent papers (Ghez et al. 2008, Gillessen et al. 2009) have estimated the mass of and the distance to the massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way using stellar orbits. The two astrometric data sets are independent and yielded consistent results, even though the measured positions do not match when simply overplotting the two sets. In this letter we show that the two sets can be brought to excellent agreement with each other when allowing for a small offset in the definition of the reference frame of the two data sets. The required offsets in the coordinates and velocities of the origin of the reference frames are consistent with the uncertainties given in Ghez et al. (2008). The so combined data set allows for a moderate improvement of the statistical errors of mass of and distance to Sgr A*, but the overall accuracies of these numbers are dominated by systematic errors and the long-term calibration of the reference frame. We obtain R0 = 8.28 +- 0.15(stat) +- 0.29(sys) kpc and M(MBH) = 4.30 +- 0.20(stat) +- 0.30(sys) x 10^6 Msun as best estimates from a multi-star fit.

by Trap, G. and Goldwurm, A. and Terrier, R. and Dodds-Eden, K. and Gillessen, S. and Genzel, R. and Pantin, E. and Lagage, P. O. and Ferrando, P. and Belanger, G. and Porquet, D. and Grosso, N. and Yusef-Zadeh, F. and Melia, F.
30 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ASR

Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is the supermassive black hole residing at the center of the Milky Way. It has been the main target of an extensive multiwavelength campaign we carried out in April 2007. Herein, we report the detection of a bright flare from the vicinity of the horizon, observed simultaneously in X-rays (XMM/EPIC) and near infrared (VLT/NACO) on April 4th for 1-2 h. For the first time, such an event also benefitted from a soft gamma-rays (INTEGRAL/ISGRI) and mid infrared (VLT/VISIR) coverage, which enabled us to derive upper limits at both ends of the flare spectral energy distribution (SED). We discuss the physical implications of the contemporaneous light curves as well as the SED, in terms of synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton emission processes.

by Merritt, David
22 pages, 18 figures

Motivated by recent observations that suggest a low density of old stars around the Milky Way supermassive black hole, evolutionary models for the nuclear star cluster are considered that postulate a parsec-scale core as initial conditions. Gravitational encounters cause the core to shrink; a core of initial radius 1-1.5 pc evolves to a size of 0.5 pc after 10 Gyr, roughly the size of the observed core. The absence of a Bahcall-Wolf cusp is naturally explained. In these models, the time for a 10-Solar-mass black hole to spiral in to the Galactic center from an initial distance of 5 pc can be much greater than 10 Gyr. Assuming that the stellar black holes had the same phase-space distribution initially as the stars, their density after 5-10 Gyr is predicted to rise very steeply going into the stellar core, but to remain substantially below the densities inferred from steady-state models that include a steep density cusp in the stars. The implications of these models are discussed for the rates of gravitational wave inspiral events and of other physical processes that depend on a high density of stars or stellar mass black holes near Sagittarius A*.

by Hong, Jaesub and Berg, Maureen van den and Grindlay, Jonathan E. and Laycock, Silas
17 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

(Abridged) We present the LogN-LogS and spatial distributions of X-ray point sources in seven Galactic Bulge (GB) fields within 4 deg from the Galactic Center (GC). We compare the properties of 1159 X-ray point sources discovered in our deep (100 ks) Chandra observations of three low extinction Window fields near the GC with the X-ray sources in the other GB fields centered around Sgr B2, Sgr C, the Arches Cluster and Sgr A* using Chandra archival data. To reduce the systematic errors induced by the uncertain X-ray spectra of the sources coupled with field-and-distance dependent extinction, we classify the X-ray sources using quantile analysis and estimate their fluxes accordingly. The result indicates the GB X-ray population is highly concentrated at the center, more heavily than the stellar distribution models. We also compare the total X-ray and infrared surface brightness using the Chandra and Spitzer observations of the regions. The radial distribution of the total infrared surface brightness from the 3.6 band $latex \mu$m images appears to resemble the radial distribution of the X-ray point sources better than predicted by the stellar distribution models. Assuming a simple power law model for the X-ray spectra, the closer to the GC the intrinsically harder the X-ray spectra appear, but adding an iron emission line at 6.7 keV in the model allows the spectra of the GB X-ray sources to be largely consistent across the region. This implies that the majority of these GB X-ray sources can be of the same or similar type. Their X-ray luminosity and spectral properties support the idea that the most likely candidate is magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs), primarily intermediate polars (IPs). Their observed number density is also consistent with the majority being IPs.

by Alig, Christian and Burkert, Andreas and Johansson, Peter H. and Schartmann, Marc
10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We simulate clouds in the Galactic Centre (GC) crossing over the black hole in parts and present this as a possible formation mechanism for the observed stellar disks in the GC through the redistribution of angular momentum by colliding material with opposite angular momentum. A parameter study using six high resolution simulations of an isothermal cloud of constant density falling onto the black hole and crossing over it in parts demonstrates that this mechanism is able to reproduce the observed disk properties in the GC. The evolution of the ensuing accretion disks is highly non-linear with the redistribution of the angular momentum through dissipative processes being a dominant effect. We analyse the resulting Toomre unstable, eccentric gaseous disk and show that this already yields a good comparison with the observed stellar disk size and eccentricity in the GC. The best simulation results in an outer radius of 1 pc, a mass of 10$latex ^4$ M$latex _{\sun}$ and an eccentricity of 0.24 for the Toomre unstable disk, which compares well with the observations.

by Cadez, A. and Kostic, U. and Calvani, M.
11 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Zeldovich Meeting 2009, Minsk

The discovery that the Galactic centre emits flares at various wavelengths represents a puzzle concerning their origin, but at the same time it is a relevant opportunity to investigate the environment of the nearest super-massive black hole. In this paper we shall review some of our recent results concerning the tidal evolution of the orbits of low mass satellites around black holes, and the tidal effect during their in-fall. We show that tidal interaction can offer an explanation for transient phenomena like near infra-red and X-ray flares from Sgr A*.

by Huang, Lei and Liu, Siming and Shen, Zhi-Qiang and Yuan, Ye-Fei and Cai, Mike J. and Li, Hui and Fryer, Christopher L.
27 pages, 6 figures, ApJ accepted

We explore the parameter space of the two temperature pseudo-Newtonian Keplerian accretion flow model for the millimeter and shorter wavelength emission from Sagittarius A*. A general relativistic ray-tracing code is used to treat the radiative transfer of polarized synchrotron emission from the flow. The synchrotron self-Comptonization and bremsstrahlung emission components are also included. It is shown that the model can readily account for the millimeter to sub-millimeter emission characteristics with an accretion rate of ~6×10^17g.s^-1 and an inclination angle of ~40 deg. However, the corresponding model predicted near-infrared and X-ray fluxes are more than one order of magnitude lower than the observed ‘quiescent’ state values. While the extended quiescent-state X-ray emission has been attributed to thermal emission from the large-scale accretion flow, the NIR emission and flares are likely dominated by emission regions either within the last stable orbit of a Schwarzschild black hole or associated with outflows. With the viscous parameter derived from numerical simulations, there is still a degeneracy between the electron heating rate and the magnetic parameter. A fully general relativistic treatment with the black hole spin incorporated will resolve these issues.

by Nishiyama, Shogo and Tamura, Motohide and Hatano, Hirofumi and Nagata, Tetsuya and Kudo, Tomoyuki and Ishii, Miki and Schödel, Rainer and Eckart, Andreas
14 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. For higher resolution, see http://www.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~shogo/paper/ApJ/SgrAS08/09NishiyamaSgrASNIRPol.pdf

We have performed near-infrared monitoring observations of Sgr A*, the Galactic center radio source associated with a super-massive black hole, with the near-infrared camera CIAO and the 36-element AO system on the Subaru telescope. We observed three flares in the Ks band (2.15micron) during 220 min monitoring on 2008 May 28, and confirmed the flare emission is highly polarized, supporting the synchrotron radiation nature of the near-infrared emission. Clear variations in the degree and position angle of polarization were also detected: an increase of the degree of polarization of about 20 %, and a swing of the position angle of about 60 – 70 degrees in the declining phase of the flares. The correlation between the flux and the degree of polarization can be well explained by the flare emission coming from hotspot(s) orbiting Sgr A*. Comparison with calculations in the literature gives a constraint to the inclination angle i of the orbit of the hotspot around Sgr A*, as 45 < i < 90 degrees (close to edge-on).

by Miyoshi, M. and Shen, Zhi-Qiang and Oyama, T. and Takahashi, R. and Kato, Y.
5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to MN Letter

We report the detection of radio QPOs with structure changes using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 43 GHz.

We found conspicuous patterned changes of the structure with P = 16.8, 22.2, 31.4, & 56.4 min, roughly in a 3:4:6:10 ratio. The first two periods show a rotating one-arm structure, while the P = 31.4 min shows a rotating 3-arm structure, as if viewed edge-on. At the central 50 microasec the P = 56.4 min period shows a double amplitude variation of those in its surroundings.

Spatial distributions of the oscillation periods suggest that the disk of SgrA* is roughly edge-on, rotating around an axis with PA = -10 degree. Presumably, the observed VLBI images of SgrA* remain several features of the black hole accretion disk of SgrA* in spite of being obscured and broadened by scattering of surrounding plasma.

by Kato, Y. and Miyoshi, M. and Takahashi, R. and Negoro, H. and Matsumoto, R.
5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to MNRAS LETTER

We determine the spin of a supermassive black hole in the context of discseismology by comparing newly detected quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) of radio emission in the Galactic centre, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), as well as infrared and X-ray emissions with those of the Galactic black holes. We find that the spin parameters of black holes in Sgr A* and in Galactic X-ray sources have a unique value of $latex \approx 0.44$ which is smaller than the generally accepted value for supermassive black holes, suggesting evidence for the angular momentum extraction of black holes during the growth of supermassive black holes. Our results demonstrate that the spin parameter approaches the equilibrium value where spin-up via accretion is balanced by spin-down via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism regardless of its initial spin. We anticipate that measuring the spin of black holes by using QPOs will open a new window for exploring the evolution of black holes in the Universe.

by van Putten, Maurice H. P. M.
Invited review, in Orleans School On The Sciences Of The Universe: Mass Motion (Springer-Verlag), to appear

Ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most exceptional nonthermal transient events, that appear to be associated with black holes. Here, we describe radiation mechanisms induced by turbulent flows around rapidly rotating black holes: high-energy emissions from a relativistic capillary effect along the black hole spin-axis and low-energy emissions by catalytic conversion of spin-energy. High-energy emissions arise, concurrently, in photons and, upstream of an outgoing Alfv\’en front, in ionic contaminants by linear acceleration. The latter develop into ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) about the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) threshold in low-luminosity, intermittent active galactic nuclei. These may include Seyfert galaxies and Cen A suggested by detections of UHECRs by the Pierre Auger Observatory and, for the latter, also of Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-rays by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS). Nearly complete spin-down of stellar mass black holes is common to collapsars and mergers of neutron stars with another neutron star or companion black hole. Thus, long GRBs from rotating black holes explain events with and without supernovae and a diversity in their X-ray afterglows. Their intrinsic exponential decay is remarkably consistent with the average of 600 light curves of long GRBs, whose total output agrees with observed peak and true energies in gamma-rays. We conclude that long GRBs are spin-powered. Gravitational radiation from turbulent flows in SgrA* might be of interest to the planned Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) and, for stellar mass black holes in GRBs, should be detectable by LIGO-Virgo. Long GRBs from naked inner engines produced in mergers produce long-duration radio-burst that may be seen in all-sky surveys by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR).

by Yuan, Ye-Fei and Cao, Xinwu and Huang, Lei and Shen, Zhi-Qiang
13 pages, 6 figures, ApJ accepted

In fully general relativity, we calculate the images of the radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) surrounding a Kerr black hole with arbitrary spins, inclination angles, and observational wavelengths. For the same initial conditions, such as the fixed accretion rate, it is found that the intrinsic size and radiation intensity of the images become larger, but the images become more compact in the inner region, while the size of the black hole shadow decreases with the increase of the black hole spin. With the increase of the inclination angles, the shapes of the black hole shadows change and become smaller, even disappear at all due to the obscuration by the thick disks. For median inclination angles, the radial velocity observed at infinity is larger because of both the rotation and radial motion of the fluid in the disk, which results in the luminous part of the images is much brighter. For larger inclination angles, such as the disk is edge on, the emission becomes dimmer at longer observational wavelengths (such as at 7.0mm and 3.5mm wavelengths), or brighter at shorter observational wavelengths (such as at 1.3 mm wavelength) than that of the face on case, except for the high spin and high inclination images. These complex behaviors are due to the combination of the Lorentz boosting effect and the radiative absorption in the disk. We hope our results are helpful to determine the spin parameter of the black hole in low luminosity sources, such as the Galactic center. A primary analysis by comparison with the observed sizes of Sgr A* at millimeters strongly suggests that the disk around the central black hole at Sgr A* is highly inclined or the central black hole is rotating fast.

by Chen, X. and Madau, P. and Sesana, A. and Liu, F. K.
5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

“Hard” massive black hole (MBH) binaries embedded in steep stellar cusps can shrink via three-body slingshot interactions. We show that this process will inevitably be accompanied by a burst of stellar tidal disruptions, at a rate that can be several orders of magnitude larger than that appropriate for a single MBH. Our numerical scattering experiments reveal that: 1) a significant fraction of stars initially bound to the primary hole are scattered into its tidal disruption loss cone by gravitational interactions with the secondary hole, an enhancement effect that is more pronounced for very unequal-mass binaries; 2) about 25% (40%) of all strongly interacting stars are tidally disrupted by a MBH binary of mass ratio q=1/81 (q=1/243) and eccentricity 0.1; and 3) two mechanisms dominate the fueling of the tidal disruption loss cone, a Kozai non-resonant interaction that causes the secular evolution of the stellar angular momentum in the field of the binary, and the effect of close encounters with the secondary hole that change the stellar orbital parameters in a chaotic way. For a hard MBH binary of 10^7 solar masses and mass ratio 0.01, embedded in an isothermal stellar cusp of velocity dispersion sigma*=100 km/s, the tidal disruption rate can be as large as 1/yr. This is 4 orders of magnitude higher than estimated for a single MBH fed by two-body relaxation. When applied to the case of a putative intermediate-mass black hole inspiraling onto Sgr A*, our results predict tidal disruption rates ~0.05-0.1/yr.