The Jet Model for Sgr A*
Abstract
In this paper the jet model for the supermassive black hole candidate Sgr A* in the Center of the Galaxy is reviewed. The most recent model, with a reduced set of parameters, is able to account for all major radio properties of the source: size, structure, flux density, and spectrum. The model requires a minimum jet power of ~10^39 erg/sec and in a symbiotic jet/disk system implies a minimum accretion rate of a few times 10^-8 M_sun/yr for a radio loud jet or \~10^-5 M_sun/yr for a radio quiet jet. Low near-infrared limits on the Sgr A* flux then imply that the accretion flow onto the central black hole must be radiatively deficient, but most likely has a high viscosity. Within the jet model the high-frequency part of the Sgr A* spectrum is self-consistently explained as the nozzle of the outflow. In a symbiotic model this innermost region of the jet could possibly be identified with the innermost region of an advection dominated accretion disk, a Bondi-Hoyle accretion flow, or any other type of under-luminous accretion process. The compact nozzle region is of particular importance since it can be used as a background photon source against which the central black hole could be directly imaged with future mm-VLBI experiments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9909439,
title = {The Jet Model for Sgr A*},
author = {Heino Falcke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9909439},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
9 pages, 4 figures, (PASP)Latex, in: "The Central Parsecs of the Galaxy", eds. H. Falcke, A. Cotera, W.J. Duschl, F. Melia, M.J. Rieke, ASP Conf. Series, Vol. 186, p. 148, also available at http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/staff/hfalcke/publications.html#gc98p2