Discovery of Two Small High-Velocity Compact Clouds in the Central 10 Parsecs of Our Galaxy

Abstract

We discovered two small high-velocity compact clouds (HVCCs) in HCN $J=4-3$ and $J=3-2$ maps of the central 20 pc of our Galaxy. Both HVCCs have broad velocity widths ($\Delta V\gtrsim 40$ km s${}^{-1}$) and compact sizes ($d\sim 1$ pc), and originate from the dense molecular clouds in the position-velocity space. One of them has a faint counterpart in a Paschen-$\alpha$ image. Their spatial structure, kinematics, and absence of luminous stellar object are compatible with the notion that each of the small HVCCs is driven by the plunge of an invisible compact object into a molecular cloud. Such objects are most likely inactive, isolated black holes.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal Letters

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