Gravitational Lensing of stars in the central arcsecond of our Galaxy
arXiv:astro-ph/0503664 · doi:10.1086/430664
Abstract
In the neighborhood of Sgr A*, several stars (S2, S12, S14, S1, S8, S13) enjoy an accurate determination of their orbital parameters. General Relativity predicts that the central black hole acts as a gravitational lens on these stars, generating a secondary image and two infinite series of relativistic images. For each of these six stars, we calculate the light curves for the secondary and the first two relativistic images, in the Schwarzschild black hole hypothesis, throughout their orbital periods. The curves are peaked around the periapse epoch, but two subpeaks may arise in nearly edge-on orbits, when the source is behind or in front of Sgr A*. We show that for most of these stars the secondary image should be observable during its brightness peak. In particular, S14 is the best candidate, since its secondary image reaches K=23.3 with an angular separation of 0.125 mas from the apparent horizon of the central black hole. The detection of such images by future instruments could represent the first observation of gravitational lensing beyond the weak field approximation.
arXiv comment28 pages, 9 figures, in press on ApJ
References in corpus (26)
- Closest Star Seen Orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way
- Viewing the Shadow of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center
- Schwarzschild black hole lensing
- Stellar Orbits Around the Galactic Center Black Hole
- High Proper Motion Stars in the Vicinity of Sgr A*: Evidence for a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy
- The First Measurement of Spectral Lines in a Short-Period Star Bound to the Galaxy's Central Black Hole: A Paradox of Youth
- Gravitational lensing in the strong field limit
- Near-infrared flares from accreting gas around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre
- The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
- Strong field limit of black hole gravitational lensing
- Stellar dynamics in the central arcsecond of our galaxy
- Variable Infrared Emission from the Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way
- Quasi-Equatorial Gravitational Lensing by Spinning Black Holes in the Strong Field Limit
- Stellar Orbits Near Sagittarius A*
- On The Nature of the Variable Infrared Emission from Sgr A*
- Strong field limit analysis of gravitational retro-lensing
- Measuring mass and angular momentum of black holes with high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
- Gravitational Lensing by Black Holes: a comprehensive treatment and the case of the star S2
- Near-Infrared Microlensing of Stars by the Super-Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
- Spin-Induced Disk Precession in the Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
- On Relativistic Corrections to Microlensing Effects: Applications to the Galactic Black Hole
- The galactic center black hole as a possible retro-lens for the S2 orbiting star
- Microlensing by Stellar Black Holes Around Sgr A*
- Enhanced Microlensing by Stars Around the Black Hole in the Galactic Center
- Pinpointing the massive black hole in the Galactic Center with gravitationally lensed stars
- Monitoring lensed starlight emitted close to the Galactic Center
Cited by in corpus (37)
- Time delay and magnification centroid due to gravitational lensing by black holes and naked singularities
- Gravitational Lensing by Black Holes
- Formalism for Testing Theories of Gravity Using Lensing by Compact Objects. I: Static, Spherically Symmetric Case
- Analytic Kerr black hole lensing for equatorial observers in the strong deflection limit
- Kerr black hole lensing for generic observers in the strong deflection limit
- Gravitational lensing by Einstein-Born-Infeld black holes
- Sgr A* and General Relativity
- Light's Bending Angle due to Black Holes: From the Photon Sphere to Infinity
- Kerr-Sen dilaton-axion black hole lensing in the strong deflection limit
- Strong gravitational lensing --- A probe for extra dimensions and Kalb-Ramond field
- Testing the No-Hair Theorem with Observations of Black Holes in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Formalism for testing theories of gravity using lensing by compact objects. II: Probing Post-Post-Newtonian metrics
- What is limiting near-infrared astrometry in the Galactic Center?
- Relativistic Images in Randall-Sundrum II Braneworld Lensing
- General relativistic effects on the orbit of the S2 star with GRAVITY
- Strong field gravitational lensing by a charged Galileon black hole
- Analytical study of higher-order ring images of accretion disk around black hole
- Lensing By Sgr A* as a Probe of Modified Gravity
- Shape of higher-order images of equatorial emission rings around a Schwarzschild black hole: Analytical description with polar curves
- Particle motion and gravitational lensing in the metric of a dilaton black hole in a de Sitter universe
- The weakly perturbed Schwarzschild lens in the strong deflection limit
- Testing the No-Hair Theorem with Observations of Black Holes in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Observing gravitational lensing effects by Sgr A* with GRAVITY
- Strong Gravitational Lensing by Sgr A*
- The Galactic Center as a laboratory for theories of gravity and dark matter
- Primary caustics and critical points behind a Kerr black hole
- Gravitational lensing of stars orbiting the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
- An Adaptive Optics Survey of Stellar Variability at the Galactic Center
- Gravitational lensing of transient neutrino sources by black holes
- Compact object detection in self-lensing binary systems with a main-sequence star
- Analytical Kerr-Sen Dilaton-Axion Black Hole Lensing in the Weak Deflection Limit
- Braneworld Black Holes
- The impact of gravitational lensing in the reconstruction of stellar orbits around Sgr A*
- Electromagnetic signatures of strong-field gravity from accreting black holes
- Probing the spin of the central black hole in the galactic centre with secondary images
- Stars lensed by the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way: predictions for ELT, TMT, GMT, and JWST
- Angular Location of the Einstein Ring at large