Related papers: Mass and Angular Momentum of Sgr A*
I report the discovery of a new effect of General Relativity which is important to understand very rapidly rotating (Kerr) black holes. The orbital velocity of a test particle is no longer a monotonic function of the orbit radius when the…
The analysis of flare start-times confirms the periods found years ago (Aschenbach et al., 2004) in the near-infrared and X-ray light-curves related to the Sgr A* black hole. The assignment of the frequencies found to radial and vertical…
Several stars orbit around a black hole candidate of mass $3.7\times 10^6$ M$_{\odot}$, in the region of the Galactic Center (GC). Looking for General Relativistic (GR) periastron shifts is limited by the existence of a stellar cluster…
We report measurements with the Very Long Baseline Array of the proper motion of Sgr A* relative to two extragalactic radio sources spanning 18 years. The apparent motion of Sgr A* is -6.411 +/- 0.008 mas/yr along the Galactic plane and…
We report measurements with the VLBA of the position of Sgr A* with respect to two extragalactic radio sources over a period of eight years. The apparent proper motion of \sgrab relative to J1745-283 is 6.379 +/- 0.024 mas/y along a…
Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a compact radio source at the Galactic center. Observations have confirmed that its mass is approximately (4.1)*10$^{6}$ M$_{\odot}$, and Sgr A* is generally believed to be powered by gas accretion onto a…
3:2 and/or 3:1 twin high frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HFQPOs) have been measured for the three microquasars GRO J1655-40, XTE J1550-564 and GRS 1915+105. For a test particle orbiting a rotating black on a stable circular orbit…
Recent observations of Sgr A* give strong constraints for possible models of the physical nature of Sgr A* and suggest the presence of a massive black~hole with M<2 10^6 M_sun surrounded by an accretion disk which we estimate to radiate at…
We observed Sgr A* and two extragalactic radio sources nearby in angle with the VLBA over a period of two years and measured relative positions with an accuracy approaching 0.1 mas. The apparent proper motion of Sgr A* relative to J1745-283…
We review the physical processes that occur at the center of the Galaxy and that are related to the supermassive black hole Sgr A* residing there. The discovery of high-velocity S0 stars orbiting Sgr A* for the first time allowed measuring…
Proper motions and radial velocities of luminous infrared stars in the galactic center have provided strong evidence for a dark mass of 2.5 million solar masses in the central 0.05 pc of the galaxy. The leading hypothesis for this mass is a…
The polarized mm/sub-mm radiation from Sgr A* is apparently produced by a Keplerian structure whose peak emission occurs within several Schwarzschild radii (r_S=2GM/c^2) of the black hole. The Chandra X-ray counterpart, if confirmed, is…
We analytically work out the cumulative, i.e. averaged over one orbital revolution, time variations of the radial velocity v_r of a typical S star orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole (SBH) hosted by the Galactic Center (GC) in Sgr A*…
Sgr A* is probably the supermassive black hole being investigated most extensively due to its proximity. Several theoretical models for its steady state emission have been proposed in the past two decades. Both the radiative-inefficient…
Here we report a measurement of the orbital period and mass function of GRS 1915+105 which allow us to deduce a mass of 14 +- 4 solar masses for its black hole. This large mass provides a challenge for black hole formation scenarios in…
The cores of most galaxies are thought to harbour supermassive black holes, which power galactic nuclei by converting the gravitational energy of accreting matter into radiation (ref 1). Sagittarius A*, the compact source of radio, infrared…
The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) exhibits temporal and spectral variability across the electromagnetic spectrum. However, variability at radio frequencies below ~ 5 GHz for timescales shorter than a day remains largely…
We explore strong gravity effects of the geodesic motion in the spacetime of rotating black holes in general relativity and braneworld gravity. We focus on the description of the motion in terms of three fundamental frequencies: The orbital…
We show that the recently-discovered orbits of massive stars with closest approach of ~10^3 Schwarzschild radii from SgrA*, allow winds from these stars to provide the required mass deposition rate near the black hole horizon. The observed…
A recent measurement of double peak QPOs frequencies in Sgr A* is consistent with the 3:2 ratio. The same ratio is firmly established by previous observations in all double peak kHz QPOs in microquasars and theoretically explained by…