Young stars in the Galactic Center

DOI

We present a large ~30"x30" spectroscopic survey of the Galactic Center using the SINFONI IFU at the VLT. Combining observations of the last two decades we compile spectra of over 2800 stars. Using the Bracket-{gamma} absorption lines, we identify 195 young stars, extending the list of known young stars by 79. In order to explore the angular momentum distribution of the young stars, we introduce an isotropic cluster prior. This prior reproduces an isotropic cluster in a mathematically exact way, which we test through numerical simulations. We calculate the posterior angular momentum space as a function of projected separation from Sgr A*. We find that the observed young star distribution is substantially different from an isotropic cluster. We identify the previously reported feature of the clockwise disk and find that its angular momentum changes as a function of separation from the black hole and thus confirm a warp of the clockwise disk (p~99.2%). At large separations, we discover three prominent overdensities of the angular momentum. One overdensity has been reported previously, the counterclockwise disk. The other two are new. Determining the likely members of these structures, we find that as many as 75% of stars can be associated with one of these features. Stars belonging to the warped clockwise disk show a top-heavy K-band luminosity function, while stars belonging to the larger separation features do not. Our observations are in good agreement with the predictions of simulations of in situ star formation and argue for the common formation of these structures.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/932/L6/table4 (Stars with determined orbital solutions; see Section 2.4)

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/932/L6/table5 (Young stars without determined orbital solutions; see Section 2.5)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.19329006
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/932/L6
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/932/L6
Related Identifier https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/932/L6
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/932/L6
Provenance
Creator von Fellenberg S.D.; Gillessen S.; Stadler J.; Baubock M.; Genzel R.,de Zeeuw T.; Pfuhl O.; Amaro Seoane P.; Drescher A.; Eisenhauer F.,Habibi M.; Ott T.; Widmann F.; Young A.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2025
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Exoplanet Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics