1. Probing the gas density in our Galactic Centre: moving mesh simulations of G2
- Author
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Stefan Gillessen, Elad Steinberg, Maryam Habibi, Frank Eisenhauer, Jason Dexter, Oliver Pfuhl, Alejandra Rosales, P. M. Plewa, Orly Gnat, Re'em Sari, Reinhard Genzel, M. Bauböck, Idel Waisberg, Thomas Ott, and Sebastiano von Fellenberg
- Subjects
Physics ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Galactic Center ,FOS: Physical sciences ,High resolution ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Radiation ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,01 natural sciences ,Accretion (astrophysics) ,Redshift ,Space and Planetary Science ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,Ionization ,0103 physical sciences ,Size ratio ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Spherical shape - Abstract
The G2 object has recently passed its pericenter passage in our Galactic Center. While the $Br_\gamma$ emission shows clear signs of tidal interaction, the change in the observed luminosity is only of about a factor of 2, in contention with all previous predictions. We present high resolution simulations performed with the moving mesh code, RICH, together with simple analytical arguments that reproduce the observed $Br_\gamma$ emission. In our model, G2 is a gas cloud that undergoes tidal disruption in a dilute ambient medium. We find that during pericenter passage, the efficient cooling of the cloud results in a vertical collapse, compressing the cloud by a factor of $\sim5000$. By properly taking into account the ionization state of the gas, we find that the cloud is UV starved and are able to reproduce the observed $Br_\gamma$ luminosity. For densities larger than $\approx500\;\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ at pericenter, the cloud fragments, due to cooling instabilities and the emitted radiation is inconsistent with observations. For lower densities, the cloud survives the pericenter passage intact and its emitted radiation matches the observed lightcurve. From the duration of $Br_\gamma$ emission which contains both redshifted and blueshifted components, we show that the cloud is not spherical but rather elongated with a size ratio of 4 at year 2001. The simulated cloud's elongation grows as it travels towards pericenter and is consistent with observations, due to viewing angles. The simulation is also consistent with having a spherical shape at apocenter.
- Published
- 2017
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