J 2020

A Galactic centre gravitational-wave Messenger

ABRAMOWICZ, Marek, Michal BEJGER, Eric GOURGOULHON and Odele STRAUB

Basic information

Original name

A Galactic centre gravitational-wave Messenger

Authors

ABRAMOWICZ, Marek (616 Poland, belonging to the institution), Michal BEJGER, Eric GOURGOULHON and Odele STRAUB (756 Switzerland)

Edition

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 2020, 2045-2322

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

10300 1.3 Physical sciences

Country of publisher

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

RIV identification code

RIV/47813059:19630/20:A0000028

Organization unit

Institute of physics in Opava

UT WoS

000530731300028

Keywords in English

STARS

Tags

International impact, Reviewed

Links

GA17-16287S, research and development project.
Změněno: 23/3/2021 20:41, Mgr. Pavlína Jalůvková

Abstract

V originále

Our existence in the Universe resulted from a rare combination of circumstances. The same must hold for any highly developed extraterrestrial civilisation, and if they have ever existed in the Milky Way, they would likely be scattered over large distances in space and time. However, all technologically advanced species must be aware of the unique property of the galactic centre: it hosts Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the closest supermassive black hole to anyone in the Galaxy. A civilisation with sufficient technical know-how may have placed material in orbit around Sgr A* for research, energy extraction, and communication purposes. In either case, its orbital motion will necessarily be a source of gravitational waves. We show that a Jupiter-mass probe on the retrograde innermost stable circular orbit around Sgr A* emits, depending on the black hole spin, at a frequency of f(GW)=0.63-1.07 mHz and with a power of P-GW=2.7x10(36)-2.0x10(37)erg/s. We discuss that the energy output of a single star is sufficient to stabilise the location of an orbiting probe for a billion years against gravitational wave induced orbital decay. Placing and sustaining a device near Sgr A* is therefore astrophysically possible. Such a probe will emit an unambiguously artificial continuous gravitational wave signal that is observable with LISA-type detectors.