A 149 minute periodicity underlies the X-ray flaring of Sgr A*

TL;DR

This paper identifies a 0.1032-day periodicity underlying the timing of large X-ray flares from Sgr A*, suggesting a possible orbiting object influencing flare activity.

Contribution

It reveals a consistent 0.1032-day periodicity in Sgr A*'s X-ray flares over 15 years, indicating a potential orbiting object as a pacemaker.

Findings

Large X-ray flares are aligned with a 0.1032-day grid.

The periodicity is statistically significant at over 4 sigma.

A possible similar pattern is observed in IR flares.

Abstract

In a recent paper (Leibowitz 2017) I have shown that the 39 large X-ray flares of Sgr A* that were recorded by Chandra observatory in the year 2012, are concentrated preferably around tick marks of an equi-distance grid on the time axis. The period of this grid as found in L1 is 0.1033 days. In this work I show that the effect can be found among all the large X-ray flares recoded by Chandra and XMM-Newton along 15 years. The midpoints of all the 71 large flares recorded between the years 2000 and 2014 are also tightly grouped around tick marks of a grid with this period, or more likely, 0.1032 day. This result is obtained with a confidence level of at least 3.27{\sigma} and very likely of 4.62{\sigma}. I find also a possible hint that a similar grid is underlying IR flares of the object. I suggest that the pacemaker in the occurrences of the large X-ray flares of Sgr A* is a mass of the order of a low mass star or a small planet, in a slightly eccentric Keplerian orbit around the SMBH at the centre of the Galaxy. The radius of this orbit is about 6.6 Schwarzschild radii of the BH.