Radio light curves during the passage of cloud G2 near Sgr A

Aleksander Sadowski, Lorenzo Sironi, David Abarca, Xinyi Guo, Feryal Özel, Ramesh Narayan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

We calculate radio light curves produced by the bow shock that is likely to form in front of the G2 cloud when it penetrates the accretion disc of Sgr A*. The shock acceleration of the radioemitting electrons is captured self-consistently by means of first-principles particle-in-cell simulations. We show that the radio luminosity is expected to reach maximum in early 2013, roughly a month after the bow shock crosses the orbit pericentre. We estimate the peak radio flux at 1.4 GHz to be 1.4-22 Jy depending on the assumed orbit orientation and parameters. We show that the most promising frequencies for radio observations are in the 0.1 < ν < 1 GHz range, for which the bow shock emission will be much stronger than the intrinsic radio flux for all the models considered.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)478-491
Number of pages14
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume432
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2013

Keywords

  • Acceleration of particles
  • Accretion, accretion discs
  • Black hole physics
  • Radiation mechanisms: non-thermal

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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