======================================================================== G C N E W S * Newsflash * - The Newsletter for Galactic Center Research - gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~gcnews ======================================================================== Vol. 24, No. 9 Jul 13, 2006 Recently submitted papers: -------------------------- 1) Identification of the Infrared Counterpart to a Newly Discovered X-ray Source in the Galactic Center (Mikles et al., ApJ) 2) Cluster Core Dynamics in the Galactic Center (Berukoff & Hansen, ApJ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Email : mikles@astro.ufl.edu Title : Identification of the Infrared Counterpart to a Newly Discovered X-ray Source in the Galactic Center Author(s): Valerie J. Mikles(1) Stephen S. Eikenberry(1) Michael P. Muno(2) Reba M. Bandyopadhyay(1) Shannon Patel(3) Institute: (1) Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (2) University of California, Los Angeles, Hubble Fellow (3) University of California, Santa Cruz Paper : ApJ, Oct 2006, in press EPrint : astro-ph/0607147 Web : http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/astro-ph/0607147 Abstract: We present first results of a campaign to find and identify new compact objects in the Galactic Center. Selecting candidates from a combination of Chandra and 2MASS survey data, we search for accretion disk signatures via infrared spectroscopy. We have found the infrared counterpart to the Chandra source CXO J174536.1-285638, the spectrum of which has strong Br gamma and HeI emission. The presence of CIII, NIII, and HeII indicate a binary system. We suspect that the system is some form of high-mass binary system, either a high-mass X-ray binary or a colliding wind binary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Email : steveb@physics.ucla.edu Title : Cluster Core Dynamics in the Galactic Center Author(s): Steven J. Berukoff and Bradley M.S. Hansen Institute: (1) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA Paper : ApJ, Oct 2006, in press EPrint : astro-ph/060780 Abstract: We present results of N-body simulations aimed at understanding the dynamics of young stars near the Galactic center. Specifically, we model the inspiral of a cluster core containing an intermediate mass black hole and N 50 cluster stars in the gravitational potential of a supermassive black hole. We first study the elliptic three-body problem to isolate issues of tidal stripping and subsequent scattering, followed by full N-body simulations to treat the internal dynamics consistently. We find that our simulations reproduce several dynamical features of the observed population. These include the observed inner edge of the claimed clockwise disk, as well as the thickness of said disk. We find that high density clumps, such as that claimed for IRS13E, also result generically from our simulations. However, not all features of the observations are reproduced. In particular, the surface density profile of the simulated disk scales as SIGMA \propto r^-0.75, which is considerably shallower than that observed. Further, at no point is any significant counter-rotating population formed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Older versions of the Newsflash can be found at the gcnews web-page) ======================================================================== Edited by Sera Markoff, Loránt Sjouwerman, Joseph Lazio, Cornelia Lang, Rainer Schödel, Robin Herrnstein - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For Abstract submission please follow the instructions which are at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~gcnews/home/submission.shtml ========================================================================