A hidden friend for the galactic center black hole, Sgr A*

Abstract

The hierarchical nature of galaxy formation suggests that a supermassive black hole binary could exist in our galactic center. We propose a new approach to constraining the possible orbital configuration of such a binary companion to the galactic center black hole Sgr A* through the measurement of stellar orbits. Focusing on the star S0-2, we show that requiring its orbital stability in the presence of a companion to Sgr A* yields stringent constraints on the possible configurations of such a companion. Furthermore, we show that precise measurements of {\it time variations} in the orbital parameters of S0-2 could yield stronger constraints. Using existing data on S0-2 we derive upper limits on the binary black hole separation as a function of the companion mass. For the case of a circular orbit, we can rule out a 10^5 M_sun companion with a semimajor axis greater than 170 astronomical units or 0.8 mpc. This is already more stringent than bounds obtained from studies of the proper motion of Sgr A*. Including other stars orbiting the galactic center should yield stronger constraints that could help uncover the presence of a companion to Sgr A*. We show that a companion can also affect the accretion process, resulting in a variability which may be consistent with the measured infrared flaring timescales and amplitudes. Finally, if such a companion exists, it will emit gravitational wave radiation, potentially detectable with LISA.

9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to ApJ-Lett

References in corpus (21)

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• An Improved Distance and Mass Estimate for Sgr A* from a Multistar Orbit Analysis
• Testing General Relativity with stellar orbits around the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center
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• The inverse Lidov-Kozai resonance for an outer test particle due to an eccentric perturber
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Cited by in corpus (40)

• Detection of the Schwarzschild precession in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole
• Imprints of Dark Matter on Black Hole Shadows using Spherical Accretions
• The Formation of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei
• Can stellar-mass black hole growth disrupt disks of active galactic nuclei? The role of mechanical feedback
• The Hills Mechanism and the Galactic Center S-stars
• Quiescent and active galactic nuclei as factories of merging compact objects in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy
• The Combined Effects of Two-Body Relaxation Processes and the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Mechanism on the EMRI Rate
• Tidal effects and disruption in superradiant clouds: a numerical investigation
• Gravitational Waves from Hierarchical Triple Systems with Kozai-Lidov Oscillation
• Detecting Kozai-Lidov imprints on the gravitational waves of intermediate-mass black holes in galactic nuclei
• Detecting Accelerating Eccentric Binaries in the LISA Band
• On Socially Distant Neighbors: Using Binaries to Constrain the Density of Objects in the Galactic Center
• Where intermediate-mass black holes could hide in the Galactic Centre: A full parameter study with the S2 orbit
• The Stationary Points of the Hierarchical Three Body Problem
• A Stability Timescale for Non-Hierarchical Three-Body Systems
• Gravitational-wave captures by intermediate-mass black holes in galactic nuclei
• The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: I. Eccentricity excitation of disk stars at the Galactic center
• Constraining a companion of the galactic center black hole, Sgr A*
• Constraints on the Galactic Centre environment from \textit{Gaia} hypervelocity stars III: Insights on a possible companion to Sgr A*
• Geodesic structure and quasinormal modes of a tidally perturbed spacetime
• Testing the Black Hole No-hair Theorem with Galactic Center Stellar Orbits
• Intermediate-mass black hole binary parameter estimation with next-generation ground-based detector networks
• Resonant Dynamical Friction Around a Super-Massive Black Hole: Analytical Description
• Radial-velocity variation of a tertiary star orbiting a binary black hole in coplanar and non-coplanar triples: short- and long-term anomalous behavior
• Dynamics of Binary System around Supermassive Black Hole
• LISA Constraints on an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Galactic Centre
• Trigonometric parallax and proper motion of Sagittarius A* measured by VERA using the new broad-band back-end system OCTAVE-DAS
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Galactic Centre as an efficient source of cosmic rays
• Science Potential for Stellar-mass Black Holes as Neighbors of Sgr A*
• Stellar rotation as a new observable to test general relativity in the Galactic Center
• Detectability of dark matter density distribution via gravitational waves from binary black holes in the Galactic center
• Partial Tidal Disruption Events by Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Supermassive and Intermediate-mass Black Hole Binaries
• The hierarchical three-body problem at $\mathcal{O}(G^2)$
• Photometric Constraints on Intermediate-mass Black Holes in the Galactic Centre
• Gravitational signatures beyond Newton: exploring hierarchical three-body dynamics
• The gas streamer G1-2-3 in the Galactic Center
• The Steady State of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes Near a Supermassive Black Hole
• Resonant Dynamical Friction in Nuclear Star Clusters: Rapid Alignment of an Intermediate-mass Black Hole with a Stellar Disk
• Pulsar Timing Response to Gravitational Waves with Spherical Wavefronts from a Massive Compact Source in the Quadrupole Approximation