# High angular resolution integral-field spectroscopy of the Galaxy's nuclear cluster: a missing stellar cusp?

## TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution integral-field spectroscopy to analyze the stellar density profile in the Galaxy's nucleus, finding no evidence of a stellar cusp and suggesting a flat or core-like distribution contrary to many theoretical models.

## Contribution

First detailed measurement of the late-type stellar density profile in the Galactic center using adaptive optics and integral field spectroscopy, challenging existing cusp formation theories.

## Key findings

- Late-type stars show a flat density profile with no cusp.
- The volume density slope is less than 1.0 at 99.73% confidence.
- Mass segregation is unlikely to be the main cause of stellar depletion.

## Abstract

We report on the structure of the nuclear star cluster in the innermost 0.16 pc of the Galaxy as measured by the number density profile of late-type giants. Using laser guide star adaptive optics in conjunction with the integral field spectrograph, OSIRIS, at the Keck II telescope, we are able to differentiate between the older, late-type ($\sim$ 1 Gyr) stars, which are presumed to be dynamically relaxed, and the unrelaxed young ($\sim$ 6 Myr) population. This distinction is crucial for testing models of stellar cusp formation in the vicinity of a black hole, as the models assume that the cusp stars are in dynamical equilibrium in the black hole potential. Based on the late-type stars alone, the surface stellar number density profile, $\Sigma(R) \propto R^{-\Gamma}$, is flat, with $\Gamma = -0.27\pm0.19$. Monte Carlo simulations of the possible de-projected volume density profile, n(r) $\propto r^{-\gamma}$, show that $\gamma$ is less than 1.0 at the 99.73 % confidence level. These results are consistent with the nuclear star cluster having no cusp, with a core profile that is significantly flatter than predicted by most cusp formation theories, and even allows for the presence of a central hole in the stellar distribution. Of the possible dynamical interactions that can lead to the depletion of the red giants observable in this survey -- stellar collisions, mass segregation from stellar remnants, or a recent merger event -- mass segregation is the only one that can be ruled out as the dominant depletion mechanism. The lack of a stellar cusp around a supermassive black hole would have important implications for black hole growth models and inferences on the presence of a black hole based upon stellar distributions.