The Galactic Supermassive Black Hole Book

Foreword     vii
Preface     xiii
The Galactic Center     1
Discovery of Sagittarius A*     2
Radio Morphology of the Central Region     5
X-ray Morphology of the Central Region     10
Sagittarius A East     17
The Radio Source Sagittarius A*     25
Position of Sagittarius A*     27
Proper Motion     32
Structure as a Function of Frequency     37
Sagittarius A*'s Spectrum     42
The Radio Spectrum     42
Linear and Circular Polarization     46
Infrared Observations     55
X-ray Observations     58
Observed High-Energy Characteristics     65
Variability     71
Short-Term Variability in the IR and X-rays     71
Long-Term Variability in the Radio     81
The Central Star Cluster     86
The Stellar Cusp Surrounding the Black Hole     87
Stellar Constituents and Dynamics     101
Stellar Orbits and the Enclosed Mass     109
The Four-Dimensional Spacetime     114
The Flat Spacetime Metric     114
Relativistic Transformation of Physical Laws     126
Accelerated Frames     132
General Relativity     137
Particle Orbits and Trajectories     140
The Kerr Metric     149
Mass Accretion and Expulsion     156
Sagittarius A*'s Gaseous Environment     158
Bondi-Hoyle Capture from Distributed Sources     162
Accretion Close to Sagittarius A*     165
Magnetic Field Dissipation     167
A Compact Magnetized Disk     176
Expulsion of Matter     204
Flares     226
Flare Physics     226
Periodicity     234
General Relativistic Flux Modulations     240
Strong Field Physics     245
Spin-Induced Disk Precession     246
Microlensing     251
Imaging the Shadow of the Black Hole     259
References     265
Index     287