Beating the confusion limit: the necessity of high angular resolution for probing the physics of Sagittarius A* and its environment: opportunities for LINC-NIRVANA (LBT), GRAVITY (VLTI) and and METIS (E-ELT)

A. Eckart; N. Sabha; G. Witzel; C. Straubmeier; B. Shahzamanian; M. Valencia-S.; Macarena García-Marín; M. Horrobin; L. Moser; J. Zuther; S. Fischer; C. Rauch; S. Rost; C. Iserlohe; S. Yazici; S. Smajic; M. Wiest; C. Araujo-Hauck; I. Wank

doi:10.1117/12.925157

12 September 2012 Beating the confusion limit: the necessity of high angular resolution for probing the physics of Sagittarius A* and its environment: opportunities for LINC-NIRVANA (LBT), GRAVITY (VLTI) and and METIS (E-ELT)

A. Eckart, N. Sabha, G. Witzel, C. Straubmeier, B. Shahzamanian, M. Valencia-S., Macarena García-Marín, M. Horrobin, L. Moser, J. Zuther, S. Fischer, C. Rauch, S. Rost, C. Iserlohe, S. Yazici, S. Smajic, M. Wiest, C. Araujo-Hauck, I. Wank

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8445, Optical and Infrared Interferometry III; 84451F (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925157
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The super-massive 4 million solar mass black hole (SMBH) SgrA* shows variable emission from the millimeter to the X-ray domain. A detailed analysis of the infrared light curves allows us to address the accretion phenomenon in a statistical way. The analysis shows that the near-infrared flux density excursions are dominated by a single state power law, with the low states of SgrA* are limited by confusion through the unresolved stellar background. We show that for 8-10m class telescopes blending effects along the line of sight will result in artificial compact star-like objects of 0.5-1 mJy that last for about 3-4 years. We discuss how the imaging capabilities of GRAVITY at the VLTI, LINC-NIRVANA at the LBT and METIS at the E-ELT will contribute to the investigation of the low variability states of SgrA*.

Citation Download Citation

A. Eckart, N. Sabha, G. Witzel, C. Straubmeier, B. Shahzamanian, M. Valencia-S., Macarena García-Marín, M. Horrobin, L. Moser, J. Zuther, S. Fischer, C. Rauch, S. Rost, C. Iserlohe, S. Yazici, S. Smajic, M. Wiest, C. Araujo-Hauck, and I. Wank "Beating the confusion limit: the necessity of high angular resolution for probing the physics of Sagittarius A* and its environment: opportunities for LINC-NIRVANA (LBT), GRAVITY (VLTI) and and METIS (E-ELT)", Proc. SPIE 8445, Optical and Infrared Interferometry III, 84451F (12 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925157

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