English

Rotating Ionized Gas Ring around the Galactic Center IRS13E3

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2019-09-25 v1

Abstract

We detected a compact ionized gas associated physically with IRS13E3, an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) candidate in the Galactic Center, in the continuum emission at 232 GHz and H30α\alpha recombination line using ALMA Cy.5 observation (2017.1.00503.S, P.I. M.Tsuboi). The continuum emission image shows that IRS13E3 is surrounded by an oval-like structure. The angular size is 0".093±0".006×0".061±0".0040".093\pm0".006\times 0".061\pm0".004 ( 1.14×10161.14\times10^{16} cm ×0.74×1016\times 0.74\times10^{16} cm). The structure is also identified in the H30α\alpha recombination line. This is seen as an inclined linear feature in the position-velocity diagram, which is usually a defining characteristic of a rotating gas ring around a large mass. The gas ring has a rotating velocity of Vrot230V_\mathrm{rot}\simeq230 km s1^{-1} and an orbit radius of r6×1015r\simeq6\times10^{15} cm. From these orbit parameters, the enclosed mass is estimated to be MIMBH2.4×104M_{\mathrm{IMBH}}\simeq2.4\times10^4 MM_\odot. The mass is within the astrometric upper limit mass of the object adjacent to Sgr A^{\ast}. Considering IRS13E3 has an X-ray counterpart, the large enclosed mass would be supporting evidence that IRS13E3 is an IMBH. Even if a dense cluster corresponds to IRS13E3, the cluster would collapse into an IMBH within τ<107\tau<10^7 years due to the very high mass density of ρ8×1011Mpc3\rho \gtrsim8\times10^{11} M_\odot pc^{-3}. Because the orbital period is estimated to be as short as T=2πr/Vrot50100T=2\pi r/V_\mathrm{rot}\sim 50-100 yr, the morphology of the observed ionized gas ring is expected to be changed in the next several decades. The mean electron temperature and density of the ionized gas are Tˉe=6800±700\bar{T}_{\mathrm e}=6800\pm700 K and nˉe=6×105\bar{n}_{\mathrm e}=6\times10^5 cm3^{-3}, respectively. Then the mass of the ionized gas is estimated to be Mgas=4×104MM_{\mathrm{gas}}=4\times10^{-4} M_\odot.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.12311,
  title  = {Rotating Ionized Gas Ring around the Galactic Center IRS13E3},
  author = {Masato Tsuboi and Yoshimi Kitamura and Takahiro Tsutsumi and Ryosuke Miyawaki and Makoto Miyoshi and Atsushi Miyazaki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.12311},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in PASJ. 13 pages, 4 figures