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The Proper Motion of Sagittarius A*. II. The Mass of Sagittarius A*

  • Authors: M. J. Reid and A. Brunthaler

Reid & Brunthaler 2004 The Astrophysical Journal 616 872.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Fig. 7.

Results of direct simulations of the motion of Sgr A*, owing to the gravitational forces of stars in random orbits within 2 pc of the Galactic center. Three simulations for different stellar IMFs are plotted: the dotted line corresponds to a standard IMF, and the solid and dot‐dashed lines correspond to mass functions flatter by 0.5 and 1.0, respectively, in their power‐law indices. A flatter than standard IMF is expected owing to mass segregation from dynamical friction and observed in the Arches Galactic center cluster. Top: Simulated rms of one component of the velocity of Sgr A* as a function of its mass. The dashed line indicates our 1 σ measurement uncertainty of 0.9 km s−1. Bottom: Percent of simulations where the motion of Sgr A* is less than a trial measurement, with the dashed line indicating the 50% or maximum likelihood limit.

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