This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to our use of cookies. To find out more, see our Privacy and Cookies policy.

Frequency-dependent Shift in the Image Centroid of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center as a Test of General Relativity

and

Published 2005 December 20 © 2006. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
, , Citation Avery E. Broderick and Abraham Loeb 2006 ApJ 636 L109 DOI 10.1086/500008

1538-4357/636/2/L109

Abstract

The inferred black hole in the Galactic center spans the largest angle on the sky among all known black holes. Forthcoming observational programs plan to localize or potentially resolve the image of Sgr A* to an exquisite precision, comparable to the scale of the black hole horizon. Here we show that the location of the image centroid of Sgr A* should depend on the observing frequency because of relativistic and radiative transfer effects. The same effects introduce a generic dependence of the source polarization on frequency. Future detection of the predicted centroid shift and the polarization dependence on frequency can be used to determine the unknown black hole spin and verify the validity of general relativity.

Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS

Please wait… references are loading.
10.1086/500008