An extremely top-heavy initial mass function in the galactic center stellar disks

H Bartko, F Martins, S Trippe, T Fritz, Reinhard Genzel, T Ott, F Eisenhauer, Stefan Gillessen, T Paumard, T Alexander, K Dodd-Eden, O Gerhard, Yuri Levin, L Mascetti, S Nayakshin, H B Perets, G Perrin, Oliver Pfuhl, M Reid, D RouanM Zilka, A Sternberg

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297 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present new observations of the nuclear star cluster in the central parsec of the Galaxy with the adaptive optics assisted, integral field spectrograph SINFONI on the ESO/VLT. Our work allows the spectroscopic detection of early- and late-type stars to mK a?Y 16, more than 2 mag deeper than our previous data sets. Our observations result in a total sample of 177 bona fide early-type stars. We find that most of these Wolf Rayet (WR), O-, and B-stars reside in two strongly warped disks between 08 and 12a?? from Sgr A*, as well as a central compact concentration (the S-star cluster) centered on Sgr A*.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)834 - 840
Number of pages7
JournalThe Astrophysical Journal
Volume708
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

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