The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way: proper motions and mass

TL;DR

This study measures the proper motions of stars near the Milky Way's center, determining the black hole's mass and detecting extended mass in the nuclear star cluster, advancing understanding of galactic nuclei dynamics.

Contribution

First proper motion analysis of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster that accurately estimates the black hole mass and detects extended mass unambiguously.

Findings

Black hole mass estimated at 3.6 million solar masses.

Detected extended mass of 0.5-1.5 million solar masses.

Velocity dispersion consistent with Keplerian fall-off at <0.3 pc.

Abstract

Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are located at the photometric and dynamical centers of the majority of galaxies. They are among the densest star clusters in the Universe. The NSC in the Milky Way is the only object of this class that can be resolved into individual stars. We measured the proper motions of more than 6000 stars within ~1.0 pc of the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. The full data set is provided in this work. We largely exclude the known early-type stars with their peculiar dynamical properties from the dynamical analysis. The cluster is found to rotate parallel to Galactic rotation, while the velocity dispersion appears isotropic (or anisotropy may be masked by the cluster rotation). The Keplerian fall-off of the velocity dispersion due to the point mass of Sgr A* is clearly detectable only at R <~ 0.3 pc. Nonparametric isotropic and anisotropic Jeans models are applied to the data. They imply a best-fit black hole mass of 3.6 (+0.2/-0.4) x 10^6 solar masses. Although this value is slightly lower than the current canonical value of 4.0x10^6 solar masses, this is the first time that a proper motion analysis provides a mass for Sagittarius A* that is consistent with the mass inferred from orbits of individual stars. The point mass of Sagittarius A* is not sufficient to explain the velocity data. In addition to the black hole, the models require the presence of an extended mass of 0.5-1.5x10^6 solar masses in the central parsec. This is the first time that the extended mass of the nuclear star cluster is unambiguously detected. The influence of the extended mass on the gravitational potential becomes notable at distances >~0.4 pc from Sgr A*. Constraints on the distribution of this extended mass are weak. The extended mass can be explained well by the mass of the stars that make up the cluster.