Galactic Center IRS 13E: Colliding Stellar Winds or an Intermediate-mass Black Hole?

Zhu, Zong-Hong; Li, Zhiyuan; Morris, Mark; Zhang, Meng-Fei; Do, Tuan; Ghez, A. M.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab980d

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Taking into account the direction and proper motion of the studied dusty objects of IRS 13 (Eckart et al 2004), our estimated value of v PROP = 244 ± 27km/s for the X3 system coincides with the these presumably YSOs of the cluster (Mužić et al 2008;Mužić et al 2010). Furthermore, v PROP of X3 matches the proper motion of the evolved WR stars E2 and E4 (Zhu et al 2020). Therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility that the X3 system might be a cluster member of IRS 13.…”

Section: Formation History Of X3mentioning

confidence: 81%

X3: A High-mass Young Stellar Object Close to the Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

Peißker

Sabha

Tsuboi

et al. 2023

ApJ

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To date, the proposed observation of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Galactic center still raises the question of where and how these objects could have formed due to the violent vicinity of Sgr A*. Here, we report the multiwavelength detection of a highly dynamic YSO close to Sgr A* that might be a member of the IRS 13 cluster. We observe the beforehand known coreless bow-shock source X3 in the near- and mid-infrared (NIR/MIR) with SINFONI (VLT), NACO (VLT), ISAAC (VLT), VISIR (VLT), SHARP (NTT), and NIRCAM2 (KECK). In the radio domain, we use CO continuum and H30α ALMA observations to identify system components at different temperatures and locations concerning the central stellar source. It is suggested that these radio/submillimeter observations in combination with the NIR Brγ line can be associated with a protoplanetary disk of the YSO, which is consistent with manifold VISIR observations that reveal complex molecules and elements such as PAH, S iv, Ne ii, and Ar iii in a dense and compact region. Based on the photometric multiwavelength analysis, we infer the mass of 15 − 5 + 10 M ⊙ for the YSO with a related age of a few 104 yr. Due to this age estimate and the required relaxation timescales for high-mass stars, this finding is an indication of ongoing star formation in the inner parsec. The proper motion and 3D distance imply a relation between X3 and IRS 13. We argue that IRS 13 may serve as a birthplace for young stars that are ejected due to the evaporation of the cluster.

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Section: Formation History Of X3mentioning

confidence: 81%

X3: A High-mass Young Stellar Object Close to the Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

Peißker

Sabha

Tsuboi

et al. 2023

ApJ

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“…Recent ALMA observations also unveiled ionized gas which appears flowing along eccentric Keplerian streams around a point-mass potential at the location of IRS 13E (Tsuboi et al 2017). However, this interpretation would break down if the gas properties of IRS 13E is due to a colliding winds (Wang et al 2020;Zhu et al 2020). Although the suggestion that it may be an intermediatemass black hole (IMBH) remains a controversial issue (Maillard et al 2004;Hansen & Milosavljević 2003;Kim et al 2004), its total inferred mass (∼ 10 4 M ) would be reasonable if the young stars in the IRS 13E complex are gravitationally bound (Schödel et al 2005;Tsuboi et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of the secular perturbation of an intermediate-mass companion: I. Eccentricity excitation of disk stars at the Galactic center

Zheng,

Lin,

Mao

2020

Preprint

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There is a dense group of OB and Wolf-Rayet stars within a fraction of a parsec from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic Center. These stars appear to be coeval and relatively massive. A subgroup of these stars orbits on the same plane. If they emerged with low to modest eccentricity orbits from a common gaseous disk around the central super-massive black hole, their inferred lifespan would not be sufficiently long to account for the excitation of their high orbital eccentricity through dynamical relaxation. Here we analyze the secular perturbation on Galactic Center stars by an intermediate-mass companion (IMC) as a potential mechanism to account for these young disk stars' high eccentricity. This IMC may be either an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) or a compact cluster such as IRS-13E. If its orbital angular momentum vector is anti-parallel to that of the disk stars, this perturbation would be effective in exciting the eccentricity of stars with orbital precession rates which resonate with IMC's precession rate. If it orbits around the SMBH in the same direction as the disk stars, the eccentricity of the young stars can still be highly excited by the IMC during the depletion of their natal disk, possible associated with the launch of the Fermi bubble. In this scenario, IMC's precession rate decreases and its secular resonance sweeps through the proximity of the young stars. We carry out numerical simulations with various inclination angles between the orbits of IMC and the disk stars and show this secular interaction is a robust mechanism to excite the eccentricity and inclination of some disk stars.

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“…As mentioned in Section 2.1, RVs used in this work come from two sources: (1) our GCOWS survey from Keck observations (Do et al 2009(Do et al , 2013, and (2) other published RV data for Galactic Center, including Paumard et al (2006), Bartko et al (2009), Feldmeier-Krause et al (2015, and Zhu et al (2020).…”

Section: Radial Velocitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Feldmeier-Krause et al (2015) used the integral-field spectrograph, KMOS, on VLT. For IRS 13E2, IRS 13E3, and IRS 13E4, Zhu et al (2020) report the latest RVs with smaller uncertainties, so we adopt their measurements for those three stars.…”

Section: Radial Velocitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy. III. The Dynamical Substructures

Jia

et al. 2023

ApJ

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We measure the 3D kinematic structures of the young stars within the central 0.5 pc of our Galactic Center using the 10 m telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory over a time span of 25 yr. Using high-precision measurements of positions on the sky and proper motions and radial velocities from new observations and the literature, we constrain the orbital parameters for each young star. Our results show two statistically significant substructures: a clockwise stellar disk with 18 candidate stars, as has been proposed before, but with an improved disk membership; and a second, almost edge-on plane of 10 candidate stars oriented east–west on the sky that includes at least one IRS 13 star. We estimate the eccentricity distribution of each substructure and find that the clockwise disk has 〈e〉 = 0.39 and the edge-on plane has 〈e〉 = 0.68. We also perform simulations of each disk/plane with incompleteness and spatially variable extinction to search for asymmetry. Our results show that the clockwise stellar disk is consistent with a uniform azimuthal distribution within the disk. The edge-on plane has an asymmetry that cannot be explained by variable extinction or incompleteness in the field. The orientation, asymmetric stellar distribution, and high eccentricity of the edge-on plane members suggest that this structure may be a stream associated with the IRS 13 group. The complex dynamical structure of the young nuclear cluster indicates that the star formation process involved complex gas structures and dynamics and is inconsistent with a single massive gaseous disk.

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Galactic Center IRS 13E: Colliding Stellar Winds or an Intermediate-mass Black Hole?

Cited by 20 publications

References 62 publications

X3: A High-mass Young Stellar Object Close to the Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

X3: A High-mass Young Stellar Object Close to the Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

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 Substructures

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