Estimating the Parameters of Sgr A*'s Accretion Flow Via Millimeter VLBI

TL;DR

This paper uses recent millimeter VLBI data and accretion models to constrain the spin and orientation of the black hole Sgr A*, demonstrating the potential of these observations to reveal black hole properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate Sgr A*'s black hole parameters using millimeter VLBI data combined with radiatively inefficient accretion flow models.

Findings

Constraints on black hole spin, inclination, and position angle.

Most probable parameters: a=0, inclination=90°, position angle=-14°.

Millimeter VLBI can significantly constrain black hole properties.

Abstract

Recent millimeter-VLBI observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) have, for the first time, directly probed distances comparable to the horizon scale of a black hole. This provides unprecedented access to the environment immediately around the horizon of an accreting black hole. We leverage both existing spectral and polarization measurements and our present understanding of accretion theory to produce a suite of generic radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) models of Sgr A*, which we then fit to these recent millimeter-VLBI observations. We find that if the accretion flow onto Sgr A* is well described by a RIAF model, the orientation and magnitude of the black hole's spin is constrained to a two-dimensional surface in the spin, inclination, position angle parameter space. For each of these we find the likeliest values and their 1-sigma & 2-sigma errors to be a=0(+0.4+0.7), inclination=50(+10+30)(-10-10) degrees, and position angle=-20(+31+107)(-16-29) degrees, when the resulting probability distribution is marginalized over the others. The most probable combination is a=0(+0.2+0.4), inclination=90(-40-50) degrees and position angle=-14(+7+11)(-7-11) degrees, though the uncertainties on these are very strongly correlated, and high probability configurations exist for a variety of inclination angles above 30 degrees and spins below 0.99. Nevertheless, this demonstrates the ability millimeter-VLBI observations, even with only a few stations, to significantly constrain the properties of Sgr A*.