Detection of the gravitational redshift in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole

R. Abuter , A. Amorim , N. Anugu , M. Bauböck , M. Benisty (1) , J.P. Berger (1) , N. Blind , H. Bonnet , W. Brandner , A. Buron , C. Collin (2) , F. Chapron (2) , Y. Clénet (2) , V. Coudé Du Foresto (2) , P.T. de Zeeuw , C. Deen , F. Delplancke-Ströbele , R. Dembet (2) , J. Dexter , G. Duvert (1) , A. Eckart , F. Eisenhauer , G. Finger , N.M. Förster Schreiber , P. Fédou (2) , P. Garcia , R. Garcia Lopez , F. Gao , E. Gendron (2) , R. Genzel , S. Gillessen , P. Gordo , M. Habibi , X. Haubois , M. Haug , F. Haussmann , Th. Henning , S. Hippler , M. Horrobin , Z. Hubert (2) , N. Hubin , A. Jimenez Rosales , L. Jochum , L. Jocou (1) , A. Kaufer , S. Kellner , S. Kendrew , P. Kervella (2) , Y. Kok , M. Kulas , S. Lacour (2) , V. Lapeyrère (2) , B. Lazareff (1) , J.-B. Le Bouquin (1) , P. Léna (2) , M. Lippa , R. Lenzen , A. Mérand , E. Müller , U. Neumann , T. Ott , L. Palanca , T. Paumard (2) , L. Pasquini , K. Perraut (1) , G. Perrin (2) , O. Pfuhl , P.M. Plewa , S. Rabien , A. Ramírez , J. Ramos , C. Rau , G. Rodríguez-Coira (2) , R.-R. Rohloff , G. Rousset (2) , J. Sanchez-Bermudez , S. Scheithauer , M. Schöller , N. Schuler , J. Spyromilio , O. Straub (2) , C. Straubmeier , E. Sturm , L.J. Tacconi , K.R.W. Tristram , F. Vincent (2) , S. von Fellenberg , I. Wank , I. Waisberg , F. Widmann , E. Wieprecht , M. Wiest , E. Wiezorrek , J. Woillez , S. Yazici , D. Ziegler (2) , G. Zins

1 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
2 LESIA (UMR_8109) - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique

The highly elliptical, 16-year-period orbit of the star S2 around the massive black hole candidate Sgr A✻ is a sensitive probe of the gravitational field in the Galactic centre. Near pericentre at 120 AU ≈ 1400 Schwarzschild radii, the star has an orbital speed of ≈7650 km s−1, such that the first-order effects of Special and General Relativity have now become detectable with current capabilities. Over the past 26 years, we have monitored the radial velocity and motion on the sky of S2, mainly with the SINFONI and NACO adaptive optics instruments on the ESO Very Large Telescope, and since 2016 and leading up to the pericentre approach in May 2018, with the four-telescope interferometric beam-combiner instrument GRAVITY. From data up to and including pericentre, we robustly detect the combined gravitational redshift and relativistic transverse Doppler effect for S2 of z = Δλ / λ ≈ 200 km s−1/c with different statistical analysis methods. When parameterising the post-Newtonian contribution from these effects by a factor f , with f = 0 and f = 1 corresponding to the Newtonian and general relativistic limits, respectively, we find from posterior fitting with different weighting schemes f = 0.90 ± 0.09|stat ± 0.15|sys. The S2 data are inconsistent with pure Newtonian dynamics.Key words: Galaxy: center / gravitation / black hole physics⋆ This paper is dedicated to Tal Alexander, who passed away about a week before the pericentre approach of S2.⋆⋆ GRAVITY is developed in a collaboration by the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, LESIA of Paris Observatory/CNRS/Sorbonne Université/Univ. Paris Diderot and IPAG of Université Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the University of Cologne, the CENTRA – Centro de Astrofisica e Gravitação, and the European Southern Observatory.⋆⋆⋆ Corresponding author: F. Eisenhauer e-mail: [e-mail]

Mots clés: Galaxy: center; gravitation; black hole physics

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Relativité Générale et Cosmologie Quantique [gr-qc]; Physique Générale [physics.gen-ph]

R. Abuter, A. Amorim, N. Anugu, M. Bauböck, M. Benisty, et al.. Detection of the gravitational redshift in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole. Astron.Astrophys., 2018, 615, pp.L15. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201833718⟩. ⟨hal-03171462⟩