A Black Hole in the Galactic Center Complex IRS 13E?

Abstract

The IRS 13E complex is an unusual concentration of massive, early-type stars at a projected distance of ~0.13 pc from the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Because of their similar proper motion and their common nature as massive, young stars it has recently been suggested that IRS 13E may be the remnant of a massive stellar cluster containing an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) that binds its members gravitationally in the tidal field of Sgr A*. Here, we present an analysis of the proper motions in the IRS~13E environment that combines the currently best available data with a time line of 10 years. We find that an IMBH in IRS 13E must have a minimum mass of ~10^4 solar masses in order to bind the source complex gravitationally. This high mass limit in combination with the absence so far of compelling evidence for a non-thermal radio and X-ray source in IRS 13E make it appear unlikely that an IMBH exists in IRS 13E that is sufficiently massive to bind the system gravitationally.

accepted by APJ

References in corpus (20)

• Closest Star Seen Orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way
• The Proper Motion of Sgr A*: II. The Mass of Sgr A*
• Chandra X-ray Spectroscopic Imaging of Sgr A* and the Central Parsec of the Galaxy
• The First Measurement of Spectral Lines in a Short-Period Star Bound to the Galaxy's Central Black Hole: A Paradox of Youth
• The runaway growth of intermediate-mass black holes in dense star clusters
• The Stellar Cusp Around the Supermassive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
• The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
• Stellar disk in the galactic center -- a remnant of a dense accretion disk?
• Analysis of isoplanatic high resolution stellar fields by Starfinder code
• A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center
• The Galactic Center He I Stars: Remains of a Dissolved Young Cluster?
• The need for a second black hole at the Galactic center
• The nature of the Galactic Center source IRS 13 revealed by high spatial resolution in the infrared
• Dynamical Friction on Star Clusters near the Galactic Center
• Kinematic and structural analysis of the Minispiral in the Galactic Center from BEAR spectro-imagery
• New Results on the Helium Stars in the Galactic Center Using BEAR Spectro-Imagery
• The Link between Warm Molecular Disks in Maser Nuclei and Star Formation near the Black Hole at the Galactic Center
• Dynamical Friction of Galactic Center Star Clusters with an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
• Dust Embedded Sources at the Galactic Center. 2 to 4$\mu$m imaging and spectroscopy in the central parsec
• The Galactic Centre Source IRS 13E: a Post-LBV Wolf-Rayet Colliding Wind Binary?

Cited by in corpus (58)

• String Axiverse
• The Galactic Center Massive Black Hole and Nuclear Star Cluster
• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• The Two Young Star Disks in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy: Properties, Dynamics and Formation
• SINFONI in the Galactic Center: young stars and IR flares in the central light month
• A Disk of Young Stars at the Galactic Center as Determined by Individual Stellar Orbits
• Stellar Processes Near the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
• Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of the Galaxy II: The Initial Mass Function
• The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way: proper motions and mass
• Massive perturber-driven interactions of stars with a massive black hole
• The structure of the nuclear stellar cluster of the Milky Way
• Simulations of star formation in a gaseous disc around sgr A* - a failed AGN
• Galactic Centre stellar winds and Sgr A* accretion
• The ecology of star clusters and intermediate mass black holes in the Galactic bulge
• Kinematics of the old stellar population at the Galactic Center
• Variable accretion and emission from the stellar winds in the Galactic centre
• The Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole: How good a case is it? A Challenge for Astrophysics & Philosophy of Science
• On the evolution and fate of supermassive stars
• The Milky Way's nuclear star cluster: Old, metal-rich, and cuspy
• Near-infrared proper motions and spectroscopy of infrared excess sources at the Galactic Center
• What is limiting near-infrared astrometry in the Galactic Center?
• Illuminating the dark ages: Cosmic backgrounds from accretion onto primordial black hole dark matter
• GC-IRS13E - A puzzling association of three early-type stars
• Millimetre-wave Emission from an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Candidate in the Milky Way
• Cluster Core Dynamics at the Galactic Center
• Kinematic Structure of the Galactic Center S-cluster
• Indication of Another Intermediate-mass Black Hole in the Galactic Center
• IRS 13N: a new comoving group of sources at the Galactic Center
• Growth of intermediate mass black holes by tidal disruption events in the first star clusters
• Star Formation in the vicinity of Nuclear Black Holes: Young Stellar Objects close to Sgr A*
• The Second Galactic Center Black Hole?; A Possible Detection of Ionized Gas Orbiting around an IMBH embedded in the Galactic Center IRS13E complex
• The Galactic Center as a laboratory for theories of gravity and dark matter
• Evolution of Star Clusters near the Galactic Center: Fully Self-consistent N-body Simulations
• Is there an intermediate massive black hole in the Galactic center: Imprints on the stellar tidal-disruption rate
• Radial Velocities of Stars in the Galactic Center
• Galactic Center IRS13E: Colliding Stellar Winds or an Intermediate Mass Black Hole?
• Compact mid-IR sources east of galactic center source IRS5
• Galactic Center Mini-spiral by ALMA - Possible Origin of the Central Cluster
• Colliding Winds in and around the Stellar Group IRS 13E at the Galactic Center
• The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: I. Eccentricity excitation of disk stars at the Galactic center
• Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures
• Rotating Ionized Gas Ring around the Galactic Center IRS13E3
• The MODEST questions: challenges and future directions in stellar cluster research
• The Discovery of Radio Stars within 10 arcseconds of Sgr A* at 7mm
• A Measurement of Proper Motions of SiO Maser Sources in the Galactic Center with the VLBA
• Weighing the IMBH candidate CO-0.40-0.22* in the Galactic Centre
• The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: II. Ejection of hypervelocity stars from the Galactic Center
• The Evaporating Massive Embedded Stellar Cluster IRS 13 Close to Sgr A*. II. Kinematic structure
• Trigonometric parallax and proper motion of Sagittarius A* measured by VERA using the new broad-band back-end system OCTAVE-DAS
• Identification of Intermediate-mass Black Hole Candidates Among a Sample of Sd Galaxies
• Study of the Science Capabilities of PRIMA in the Galactic Center
• Star formation in the central 0.5 pc of the Milky Way
• Dynamics of star associations in an SMBH-IMBH system: The case of IRS13 in the Galactic centre
• Gravitational wave inference of star cluster properties from intermediate-mass black hole mergers
• Discovery of a Dense Association of Stars in the Vicinity of the Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*
• Compact stellar systems hosting an intermediate mass black hole: magnetohydrodynamic study of inflow-outflow dynamics
• Photometric Constraints on Intermediate-mass Black Holes in the Galactic Centre
• Resonant Dynamical Friction in Nuclear Star Clusters: Rapid Alignment of an Intermediate-mass Black Hole with a Stellar Disk