Sgr A*: observations, models, and imaging of the event horizon with VLBI
Heino Falcke1, Sera Markoff1, Peter L. Biermann1, Thomas P. Krichbaum1, Fulvio Melia2, Eric Agol3, Geoffrey Bower4
1Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf den Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany (hfalcke)2Physics Department and Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
3Theoretical Astrophysics, Caltech MS 130-33, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125
4Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
in: "Galaxies and their Constituents at the Highest Angular Resolution", IAU Symp. 205, Eds. Richard Schilizzi, Stuart Vogel, Francesco Paresce, Martin Elvis, Am. Soc. Pacific
Abstract:
We show and discuss results and prospects of high-resolution imaging of the supermassive black hole candidate Sgr A*. We also briefly review the latest observational and theoretical progress for this source. The latest millimeter-VLBI observations show compact radio emission from within a region of about 15 Schwarzschild radii. This compact component is most likely responsible for the so-called sub-mm bump in the spectrum and perhaps even for the recently discovered circular polarization discovered up to 43 GHz and some X-ray emission through synchrotron self-Compton emission. Most importantly, however, the sub-mm emission from Sgr A* opens the door to observe, for the first time, the event horizon of a black hole directly with VLBI at sub-mm wavelengths.
Paper: Available in PostScript and (AAS)LaTex. Please send an email request to hfalcke@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de for a preprint.
Other publications can be found here.
Questions: Heino Falcke, hfalcke@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de