Three-dimensional analysis of the Minispiral at the Galactic Center: orbital parameters, periods and the mass of the black hole

Maria Selina Nitschai, Nadine Neumayer, Anja Feldmeier-Krause

Published 2020-04-28Version 1

In this paper we simultaneously fit the orbits and line-of-sight velocities of the ionized gas around the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A$^{\ast}$ (Sgr A$^{\ast}$), at the center of the Milky Way. The data we use are taken with the K-band Multi Object Spectrograph (KMOS), presented in Feldmeier-Krause et al. (2015) and cover the central $\sim$ 2 pc of the Milky Way. From the brightest gas emission line in the K-band, the Br$\gamma$ line, we derive the spatial distribution and line-of-sight velocities of the gas in the minispiral. Using the flux distribution and the line-of-sight velocity information, we perform a fit to the three main gas streamers in the minispiral, the Northern Arm, Eastern Arm, and Western Arc, using a Bayesian modelling method, and are able to reconstruct the three-dimensional orbits of these gas streamers. With the best fit orbital parameters and the measured line-of-sight velocities, we constrain the mass of Sgr A$^{\ast}$. The orbit of the Eastern Arm is the one that is best constrained using our data. It gives a best-fit orbital period of $17.4_{-11.6}^{+31.0}\cdot 10^3$ years and results in an enclosed mass of $14.9_{-10.4}^{+69.4}\cdot 10^6 M_{\odot}.$