Analytic Post-Newtonian Astrometric and Spectroscopic Models of Orbits around Black Holes

Abstract

Observations of the S-stars, the cluster of young stars in the inner 0.1 pc of the Galactic Center, have been crucial in providing conclusive evidence for a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Since some of the stars have orbits less than that of a typical human lifetime, it is possible to observe multiple orbits and test the weak-field regime of general relativity. Current calculations of S-star orbits require slow and expensive computations in order to numerically solve geodesic equations for many small time steps. In this paper, we present a computationally efficient, first-order post-Newtonian model for the astrometric and spectroscopic data gathered for the S-stars. We find that future, 30-m class telescopes -- and potentially even current large telescopes with very high spectroscopic resolution -- may be able to detect the Shapiro effect for an S-star in the next decade or so.

20 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. v2: edited to match published ApJ version

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Gravitational signatures beyond Newton: exploring hierarchical three-body dynamics
• PPN--spin degeneracies in mock S62-like stellar-orbit inference