von Fellenberg, S. D.; Gillessen, Stefan; Graciá-Carpio, Javier; Fritz, T. K.; Dexter, Jason; Bauböck, Michi; Ponti, Gabriele; Gao, Feng; Habibi, Maryam; Plewa, Philipp M.; Pfuhl, Oliver; Jimenez-Rosales, Alejandra; Waisberg, Idel; Widmann, Felix; Ott, Thomas; Eisenhauer, Frank; Genzel, Reinhard
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 862, Issue 2, article id. 129, 17 pp. (2018).
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2018
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Description
We report the first detection of the Galactic Center massive black hole,
Sgr A*, at 100 μm and 160 μm. Our measurements were obtained with
PACS on board the Herschel satellite. While the warm dust in the
Galactic Center is too bright to allow for a direct detection of Sgr A*,
we measure a significant and simultaneous variation of its flux of
{{Δ }}{F}ν \hat{=160μ {{m}}}=(0.27+/- 0.06)
{{Jy}} and {{Δ }}{F}ν \hat{=100μ {{m}}}=(0.16+/-
0.10) {{Jy}} during one observation. The significance level of the
variability in the 160 μm band is 4.5σ, and the corresponding
variability in the 100 μm band is significant at 1.6σ. We find
no example of an equally significant false positive detection.
Conservatively assuming a variability of 25% in the FIR, we can provide
upper limits to the flux. Comparing the latter with theoretical models,
we find that 1D radiatively inefficient accretion flow models have
difficulties explaining the observed faintness. However, the upper
limits are consistent with modern observations by ALMA and the Very
Large Array. Our upper limits provide further evidence for a spectral
peak at ∼1012 Hz and constrain the number density of
γ ∼ 100 electrons in the accretion disk and/or outflow.
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