Testing the validity of the ray-tracing code GYOTO

TL;DR

This paper validates the GYOTO ray-tracing code's accuracy for modeling stellar orbits and lensing effects near the Galactic center, demonstrating it exceeds the precision needed for upcoming GRAVITY observations.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive validation of GYOTO's accuracy in weak and strong gravitational lensing regimes, ensuring its suitability for future high-precision astrometric data analysis.

Findings

GYOTO achieves accuracy orders of magnitude better than GRAVITY requirements.

Validated GYOTO in both weak- and strong-deflection regimes.

Demonstrated importance of lensing effects in stellar orbit fitting near Sgr A*.

Abstract

In the next few years, the near-infrared interferometer GRAVITY will be able to observe the Galactic center. Astrometric data will be obtained with an anticipated accuracy of 10 $\mu$as. To analyze these future data, we have developed a code called GYOTO to compute orbits and images. We want to assess the validity and accuracy of GYOTO in a variety of contexts, in particular for stellar astrometry in the Galactic center. Furthermore, we want to tackle and complete a study made on the astrometric displacements that are due to lensing effects of a star of the central parsec with GYOTO. We first validate GYOTO in the weak-deflection limit (WDL) by studying primary caustics and primary critical curves obtained for a Kerr black hole. We compare GYOTO results to available analytical approximations and estimate GYOTO errors using an intrinsic estimator. In the strong-deflection limit (SDL), we choose to compare null geodesics computed by GYOTO and the ray-tracing code named Geokerr. Finally, we use GYOTO to estimate the apparent displacements of a star for different angles from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). We have demonstrated that GYOTO is accurate to a very high level, orders of magnitude better than the GRAVITY requirements. GYOTO is also valid in weak- and strong-deflection regimes and for very long integrations. At the astrometric precision that GRAVITY is aiming for, lensing effects must always be taken into account when fitting stellar orbits in the central parsec of the Galaxy.