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Cited by 946Astrophysical Phenomena and ObservationsStellar, planetary, and galactic studiesPulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

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

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GRAVITY Collaboration, Abuter, R., Amorim, A., Anugu, N., Bauböck, M., Benisty, M., Berger, J. P., Blind, N. +90 more·2018·Astronomy & Astrophysics
DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/201833718
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Abstract

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 = Δ λ / 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.

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Authors
GRAVITY Collaboration, Abuter, R., Amorim, A., Anugu, N., Bauböck, M., Benisty, M., Berger, J. P., Blind, N., Bonnet, H., Brandner, W., Buron, A., Collin, C., Chapron, F., Clénet, Y., dCoudé u Foresto, V., de Zeeuw, P. T., Deen, C., Delplancke-Ströbele, F., Dembet, R., Dexter, J., Duvert, G., Eckart, A., Eisenhauer, F., Finger, G., Förster Schreiber, N. M., Fédou, P., Garcia, P., Garcia Lopez, R., Gao, F., Gendron, E., Genzel, R., Gillessen, S., Gordo, P., Habibi, M., Haubois, X., Haug, M., Haußmann, F., Henning, T., Hippler, S., Horrobin, M., Hubert, Z., Hubin, N., Jimenez Rosales, A., Jochum, L., Jocou, L., Kaufer, A., Kellner, S., Kendrew, S., Kervella, P., Kok, Y., Kulas, M., Lacour, S., Lapeyrère, V., Lazareff, B., Le Bouquin, J.-B., Léna, P., Lippa, M., Lenzen, R., Mérand, A., Müler, E., Neumann, U., Ott, T., Palanca, L., Paumard, T., Pasquini, L., Perraut, K., Perrin, G., Pfuhl, O., Plewa, P. M., Rabien, S., Ramírez, A., Ramos, J., Rau, C., Rodríguez-Coira, G., Rohloff, R.-R., Rousset, G., Sanchez-Bermudez, J., Scheithauer, S., Schöller, M., Schuler, N., Spyromilio, J., Straub, O., Straubmeier, C., Sturm, E., Tacconi, L. J., Tristram, K. R. W., Vincent, F., von Fellenberg, S., Wank, I., Waisberg, I., Widmann, F., Wieprecht, E., Wiest, M., Wiezorrek, E., Woillez, J., Yazici, S., Ziegler, D., & Zins, G.
Affiliations
  • European Southern Observatory (DE)
  • University of Lisbon (PT)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)
  • Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • University of Geneva (CH)
  • Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE)
  • University of Cologne (DE)
  • European Southern Observatory (CL)
  • Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
  • Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
ORCID
Venue
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Publisher
EDP Sciences
Published
2018-07
Volume
615
Pages
L15
ISSN
  • 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-0746
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/201833718
OpenAlex
W2884375320
Cited by
946
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 70 · 2025: 106 · 2024: 107 · 2023: 121 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 132 · 2020: 131 · 2019: 143 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
58.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.edpsciences.org/en/authors/copyright-and-licensing (vor, 25 d)
Locations
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion)
  • Kölner Universitäts PublikationsServer (Universität zu Köln) (publishedVersion)
  • Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (610058, 306311)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Keywords
gravitational redshift, S2 star, Sgr A*, Galactic Center, massive black holes, relativistic Doppler effect, post-Newtonian effects, tests of general relativity, stellar orbits, GRAVITY interferometer, adaptive optics, radial velocity

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