Michael J. Longo
Published 2011-09-28, updated 2011-10-07Version 2
An analysis of data from the Fermi LAT on long time scales shows strong evidence that the flux of GeV gammas from Sgr A* has a significant component that varies with a period \gtrsim4 yr. The flux varied about 15% over the 3-years of LAT observations. Orbits of over 100 stars in the innermost arcsecond of our Galaxy have been tracked around the massive black hole that resides there. Of these, the star S2 has the shortest orbital period 15.8 yr. This suggests that the GeV gamma flux is being modulated by accretion flow of matter accompanying the orbiting stars into the black hole.
Comments: This paper is withdrawn due to the discovery of a systematic error that caused the apparent time dependence. Thanks to Tim Linden who pointed out that a cut to remove gammas from the Earth's limb should have been applied
The Distribution of Stars and Stellar Remnants at the Galactic Center
A star disrupted by a stellar black hole as the origin of the cloud falling toward the Galactic center
Restrictions on the injection energy of positrons annihilating near the Galactic center
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