arXiv subjects

D. Calderon

Publications and source records attributed to D. Calderon.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

S301 and friends: Measuring the spin of Sgr A*

The discovery of S301 (GRAVITY Collaboration et al., 2026) with pericenter distance rp= 280rg and eccentricity e=0.9825, opens the prospect of measuring the spin parameter of Sgr A* through Lense--Thirring (LT) nodal precession. A major obstacle is Newtonian confusion: any non-spherical extended mass distribution can also induce nodal precession. We aim to separate the LT spin signal of S301 from the Newtonian nodal precession. We compare the secular Newtonian torque exerted by a disk or flattened mass distribution on the orbits of S301 and of the apocenter-matched reference stars S2, S55, and S38, using analytic estimates validated by numerical orbit-averaged torque calculations. For a disk or flattened distribution extending beyond the stellar pericenters, the secular Newtonian torque on a highly eccentric orbit is controlled mainly by the apocenter, whereas the LT signal is controlled mainly by the pericenter. Thus stars with apocenters comparable to S301's but much larger pericenters, in particular S2, but also S55, and S38, experience comparable Newtonian torques while having ~ 30 times smaller LT signals (for S2). Their measured precessions, or upper limits on them, can therefore calibrate the mass and orientation of the Newtonian background for subtraction from S301's precession. The Schwarzschild apsidal advance of S301 further rotates the orbit's pericenter relative to any disk, producing a systematic time dependence in the Newtonian contribution, while the LT signal remains fixed by the spin vector. Granularity of the perturber population sets a stochastic floor on this subtraction, which orbit- and star-averaging suppress. With continued GRAVITY+ astrometry and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) spectroscopy, the in-plane spin projection may be within near-term reach; the full spin vector requires a much longer-term accumulation of the LT apsidal signal.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Discovery of a star sensitive to the spin of Sgr A*

Residing in the center of the Milky Way, Sgr A* is the closest massive black hole (MBH). Its vicinity has allowed measuring individual stellar orbits around it. The stars act as test particles and probe the gravitational potential around the $4.3 \times 10^6 M_\odot$ MBH. These observations have determined the central mass to sub-percent precision, and the mildly relativistic motions of stars have given access to the dominant relativistic corrections, the gravitational redshift, the transverse Doppler effect, and the prograde precession imposed by the Schwarzschild metric nature of the potential. These effects are of order $\beta^2 = (v/c)^2$ (for velocity $v$ and speed of light $c$). The Kerr metric for a rotating black hole leads to corrections of order $\beta^3$. Here, we report the discovery of a faint main-sequence star ($m_K = 19.3$), S301, on a 8.7-year orbit and with small enough a pericenter distance, such that the star's peak velocity reaches $25000\,$km/s. Within the measurement capabilities of current near-infrared interferometry and future spectroscopy on an extremely large telescope, S301's motion is directly sensitive to the spin of Sgr A*. The high eccentricity of S301 suggests that it is the captured component of a binary that was torn apart via the Hills mechanism.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

The gas streamer G1-2-3 in the Galactic Center

The black hole in the Galactic Center, Sgr A*, is prototypical for ultra-low-fed galactic nuclei. The discovery of a hand-full of gas clumps in the realm of a few Earth masses in its immediate vicinity provides a gas reservoir sufficient to power Sgr A*. In particular, the gas cloud G2 is of interest due to its extreme orbit, on which it passed at a pericenter distance of around 100 AU and notably lost kinetic energy during the fly-by due to the interaction with the black hole accretion flow. 13 years prior to G2, a resembling gas cloud called G1, passed Sgr A* on a similar orbit. The origin of G2 remained a topic of discussion, with models including a central (stellar) source still proposed as alternatives to pure gaseous clouds. Here, we report the orbit of a third gas clump moving again along (almost) the same orbital trace. Since the probability of finding three stars on close orbits is very small, this strongly argues against stellar-based source models. Instead, we show that the gas streamer G1-2-3 plausibly originates from the stellar wind of the massive binary star IRS16SW. This claim is substantiated by the fact that the small differences between the three orbits - the orientations of the orbital ellipses in their common plane as a function of time - are consistent with the orbital motion of IRS 16SW.

astro-ph.GA↗