The Simultaneous Spectrum of Sagittarius A* from 20 Centimeters to 1 Millimeter and the Nature of the Millimeter Excess

Abstract

We report results of a multiwavelength campaign to measure the simultaneous spectrum of the supermassive black hole candidate Sgr A* in the Galactic center from centimeter to millimeter wavelengths using the Very Large Array, the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array (BIMA), the Nobeyama 45 m, and the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) 30 m telescopes. The observations confirm that the previously detected millimeter excess is an intrinsic feature of the spectrum of Sgr A*. The excess can be interpreted as and effect of the presence of an ultracompact component of relativistic plasma with a size of a few Schwarzschild radii near the black hole. If so, Sgr A* might offer a unique possibility to image the putative black hole against the background of this component with future millimeter VLBI experiments.