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Hees A, Do T, Ghez AM, Martinez GD, Naoz S, Becklin EE, Boehle A, Chappell S, Chu D, Dehghanfar A, Kosmo K, Lu JR, Matthews K, Morris MR, Sakai S, Schödel R, Witzel G. Testing General Relativity with Stellar Orbits around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2017; 118:211101. [PMID: 28598651 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.118.211101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2016] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
We demonstrate that short-period stars orbiting around the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center can successfully be used to probe the gravitational theory in a strong regime. We use 19 years of observations of the two best measured short-period stars orbiting our Galactic center to constrain a hypothetical fifth force that arises in various scenarios motivated by the development of a unification theory or in some models of dark matter and dark energy. No deviation from general relativity is reported and the fifth force strength is restricted to an upper 95% confidence limit of |α|<0.016 at a length scale of λ=150 astronomical units. We also derive a 95% confidence upper limit on a linear drift of the argument of periastron of the short-period star S0-2 of |ω[over ˙]_{S0-2}|<1.6×10^{-3} rad/yr, which can be used to constrain various gravitational and astrophysical theories. This analysis provides the first fully self-consistent test of the gravitational theory using orbital dynamic in a strong gravitational regime, that of a supermassive black hole. A sensitivity analysis for future measurements is also presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Hees
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - T Do
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - A M Ghez
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - G D Martinez
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - S Naoz
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - E E Becklin
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - A Boehle
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - S Chappell
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - D Chu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - A Dehghanfar
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - K Kosmo
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - J R Lu
- Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - K Matthews
- Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, MC 301-17, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
| | - M R Morris
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - S Sakai
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - R Schödel
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía S/N, 18008 Granada, Spain
| | - G Witzel
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
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