Detailed Information on Publication Record
2018
A stellar fly-by close to the Galactic center: Can we detect stars on highly relativistic orbits?
ZAJAČEK, Michal and Arman TURSUNOVBasic information
Original name
A stellar fly-by close to the Galactic center: Can we detect stars on highly relativistic orbits?
Authors
ZAJAČEK, Michal (703 Slovakia) and Arman TURSUNOV (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)
Edition
Astronomische Nachrichten, 2018, 0004-6337
Other information
Language
English
Type of outcome
Článek v odborném periodiku
Field of Study
10308 Astronomy
Country of publisher
Germany
Confidentiality degree
není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství
References:
RIV identification code
RIV/47813059:19240/18:A0000259
Organization unit
Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava
UT WoS
000444072500002
Keywords in English
celestial mechanics; galaxy: center; methods: statistical; stellar dynamics
Tags
International impact, Reviewed
Links
GJ16-03564Y, research and development project.
Změněno: 23/4/2020 14:02, RNDr. Arman Tursunov, Ph.D.
Abstract
V originále
The Galactic center Nuclear Star Cluster is one of the densest stellar clusters in the Galaxy. The stars in its inner portions orbit the supermassive black hole associated with the compact radio source Sgr A* at the orbital speeds of several thousand kilometers per second. The B-type star S2 is currently the best case to test the general relativity as well as other theories of gravity, based on its stellar orbit. Yet, its orbital period of approximate to 16years and the eccentricity of approximate to 0.88 yields the relativistic pericenter shift of approximate to 11', which is observationally still difficult to reliably measure due to possible Newtonian perturbations as well as reference-frame uncertainties. A naive way to solve this problem is to find stars with smaller pericenter distances, r_p <~ 1529 Schwarzschild radii (120 AU), and thus with more prominent relativistic effects. In this paper, we show that to detect stars on relativistic orbits is progressively less likely, given the volume shrinkage and the expected stellar density distributions. Finally, one arrives at a sparse region where the total number of bright stars is expected to fall below 1. One can, however, still potentially detect stars crossing this region. In this paper, we provide a simple formula for the detection probability of a star crossing a sparse region. We also examine an approximate timescale in which the star reappears in the sparse region, i.e., a 'waiting' timescale for observers.