Hinting a dark matter nature of Sgr A∗ via the S-stars

• Autores: Becerra Vergara, E. A.; Argüelles, Carlos Raúl; Krut, A.; Rueda, Jorge Armando; Ruffini, Remo
• Año de publicación: 2021
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Astronomía; Elementary particles; Dark matter
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de La Plata

The motion data of the S-stars around the Galactic center gathered in the last 28 yr imply that Sgr A∗ hosts a supermassive compact object of about 4×10⁶ M⊙, a result awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020. A non-rotating black hole (BH) nature of Sgr A∗ has been uncritically adopted since the S-star orbits agree with Schwarzschild geometry geodesics. The orbit of S2 has served as a test of General Relativity predictions such as the gravitational redshift and the relativistic precession. The central BH model is, however, challenged by the G2 post-peripassage motion and by the lack of observations on event-horizon-scale distances robustly pointing to its univocal presence. We have recently shown that the S2 and G2 astrometry data are better fitted by geodesics in the spacetime of a self-gravitating dark matter (DM) core-halo distribution of 56 keV-fermions, "darkinos", which also explains the outer halo Galactic rotation curves. This Letter confirms and extends this conclusion using the astrometry data of the 17 best-resolved S-stars, thereby strengthening the alternative nature of Sgr A∗ as a dense core of darkinos.
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas