INTRINSIC SIZE OF SGR A*: 72 SCHWARZSCHILD RADII

K. Y. Lo(1), Zhi-Qiang Shen(2,4), Jun-Hui Zhao(3), and P. T. P. Ho(3)


(1) Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, PO Box 1-87, Nankang, Taipei 115; kyl@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw
(2) Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, PO Box 1-87, Nankang, Taipei 115; and Shanghai Observatory, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030
(3) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; jzhao@cfa.harvard.edu and ho@cfa.harvard.edu
(4) Present address: National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo 181; zshen@hotaka.mtk.nao.ac.jp

Paper: ApJ Letters, in press

EPrint Server: astro-ph/9809222


Abstract:

Recent proper motion studies of stars at the very center of the Galaxy strongly suggest that Sagittarius (Sgr) A ^\star, the compact nonthermal radio source at the Galactic Center, is a 2.5*106 Mo black hole. By means of near-simultaneous multi-wavelength Very Long Baseline Array measurements, we determine for the first time the intrinsic size and shape of Sgr A* to be 72 R_sc(\star) by < 20 R_sc(\star), with the major axis oriented essentially north-south, where R_sc(\star) (\equiv 7.5 * 1011 cm) is the Schwarzschild radius for a 2.5* 106 Mo black hole. Contrary to previous expectation that the intrinsic structure of Sgr A* is observable only at lambda <= 1 mm, we can discern the intrinsic source size at lambda 7 mm because (1) the scattering size along the minor axis is half that along the major axis, and (2) the near simultaneous multi-wavelength mapping of Sgr A* with the same interferometer makes it possible to extrapolate precisely the minor axis scattering angle at lambda 7 mm. The intrinsic size and shape place direct constraints on the various emission models for Sgr A*. In particular, the advection dominated accretion flow model may have to incorporate a radio jet in order to account for the structure of Sgr A*.


Preprints available from the authors at zshen@hotaka.mtk.nao.ac.jp , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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