Polarized mm And sub-mm Emission From Sgr A* At The Galactic Center

Fulvio Melia(1,2), Siming Liu(3), and Robert Coker(4)


(1) Physics Department and Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
(2) Sir Thomas Lyle Fellow and Miegunyah Fellow.
(3) Physics Department, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
(4) Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Paper: APJ Letter Submitted

Weblink: http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~liusm/publication/paper4.ps

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0008261


Abstract:

The recent detection of significant linear polarization at mm and sub-mm wavelengths in the spectrum of Sgr A* (if confirmed) will be a useful probe of the conditions within several Schwarzschild radii (rS) of the event horizon at the Galactic Center. Hydrodynamic simulations of gas flowing in the vicinity of this object suggest that the infalling gas circularizes when it approaches within 5-25 rS of the black hole. We suggest that the sub-mm ``excess'' of emission seen in the spectrum of Sgr A* may be associated with radiation produced within the inner Keplerian region and that the observed polarization characteristics provide direct evidence for this phenomenon.


Preprints available from the authors at liusm@physics.arizona.edu , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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