Tests of Gravitational Theories with Observations of the Galactic Center and the Center of the Galaxy M87
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sts of Gravitational Theories with Observations of the Galactic Center and the Center of the Galaxy M87 A. F. Zakharova, b, c, * a
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, 117218 Russia Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Moscow oblast, 141980 Russia c National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow, 115409 Russia *e-mail: [email protected]
bBogoliubov
Received December 20, 2019; revised January 16, 2020; accepted January 29, 2020
Abstract—In October 2019, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded “for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.” In particular, one half of the prize was awarded to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”; the other half of the prize was shared between Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.” In fact, this also means recognition of the importance of work in the field of gravity, astrophysics, and cosmology. The use of astronomical observations of the Galactic Center to obtain constraints on the gravitational field near a supermassive black hole is discussed.
DOI: 10.1134/S1063779620040802
1. INTRODUCTION Since Newton’s days, it is known that the gravitational potential can be estimated from an analysis of the motion of test particles in this field. Currently, there are two main observation methods for studying the gravitational potential at the Galactic Center to prove the presence of a supermassive black hole, namely, (a) monitoring the orbits of bright stars near the Galactic Center using the largest telescopes with adaptive optics, and (b) measuring the size and shape of shadows around a black hole, providing an alternative opportunity to evaluate the parameters of a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope. In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration announced the reconstruction of bright structures in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 Galaxy. We discussed the possibilities of testing theories of gravity using observations of bright stars in the center of the Galaxy. Recently, the LIGO–Virgo collaboration not only detected gravitational waves and binary black holes, but also found the upper limit of the graviton mass of
mg 12 1022 eV [1]. We show that the analysis of the trajectories of bright stars can constrain the graviton mass with comparable accuracy. We discuss the possibility of significantly improving current evalua-
tions of graviton mass with subsequent observations by Keck, VLT, GRAVITY, E-ELT, and TMT, and thus, the possibility of achieving an estimation of graviton mass such as mg 12 1023 eV [2]. We also discuss recent results from the GRAVITY and Keck collaborations on estimating the gravitational redshift for star S2 near the pericenter of its orbit. These results confirmed the predictions of general relativity for the Galactic Center. Therefore, such an
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