Ionization Structure and Metal Enrichment of the Galactic Center Minispiral Observed with JWST
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Ford, Nicole M Balakrishnan, Mayura von Fellenberg, Sebastiano D. Haggard, Daryl Michail, Joseph M. Cui, Yuzhu Hora, Joseph L. Neilsen, Joey Principe, Giacomo Roychowdhury, Tamojeet Sabha, Nadeen B Smith, Howard A. Sumners, Zach Willner, S. P. |
| author_facet | Ford, Nicole M Balakrishnan, Mayura von Fellenberg, Sebastiano D. Haggard, Daryl Michail, Joseph M. Cui, Yuzhu Hora, Joseph L. Neilsen, Joey Principe, Giacomo Roychowdhury, Tamojeet Sabha, Nadeen B Smith, Howard A. Sumners, Zach Willner, S. P. |
| contents | Sgr A* is the nearest quiescent supermassive black hole, and its proximity offers a unique opportunity to study its surrounding fuel supply. We leverage extensive spatial and spectroscopic information provided by the \jwst/MIRI MRS instrument to disentangle mid-infrared ionized gas structures in the central 0.1 parsec of the Galaxy. The Galactic Minispiral's Bar and Northern Arm are revealed by their distinct morphological and kinematic signatures. Several compact ($<1$\arcsec) gas structures including X7 also appear within $\sim 0.05$ parsec of Sgr A* in the plane of the sky, moving with blue-shifted radial velocities $\gtrsim 600$ km/s. Fine structure line measurements spanning ionization energies $\sim 7 - 55$ eV are used to constrain the incident radiation field, metal abundances (neon, argon, sulfur, nickel, and iron), and dust depletion/destruction for each identified gas structure. Overall, the Minispiral gas metallicity is $\sim 1-2.5~Z_\sun$, with a Wolf-Rayet star-driven ionizing radiation field, and significant nickel and iron dust destruction. Increased flux at energies $\gtrsim 41$ eV suggests that the compact gas structures experience an additional harder ionizing radiation source, which is most likely driven by localized fast radiative shocks from stellar winds, a hypothetical Sgr A* outflow, and/or interactions with the ambient medium. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_13995 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Ionization Structure and Metal Enrichment of the Galactic Center Minispiral Observed with JWST Ford, Nicole M Balakrishnan, Mayura von Fellenberg, Sebastiano D. Haggard, Daryl Michail, Joseph M. Cui, Yuzhu Hora, Joseph L. Neilsen, Joey Principe, Giacomo Roychowdhury, Tamojeet Sabha, Nadeen B Smith, Howard A. Sumners, Zach Willner, S. P. Astrophysics of Galaxies Sgr A* is the nearest quiescent supermassive black hole, and its proximity offers a unique opportunity to study its surrounding fuel supply. We leverage extensive spatial and spectroscopic information provided by the \jwst/MIRI MRS instrument to disentangle mid-infrared ionized gas structures in the central 0.1 parsec of the Galaxy. The Galactic Minispiral's Bar and Northern Arm are revealed by their distinct morphological and kinematic signatures. Several compact ($<1$\arcsec) gas structures including X7 also appear within $\sim 0.05$ parsec of Sgr A* in the plane of the sky, moving with blue-shifted radial velocities $\gtrsim 600$ km/s. Fine structure line measurements spanning ionization energies $\sim 7 - 55$ eV are used to constrain the incident radiation field, metal abundances (neon, argon, sulfur, nickel, and iron), and dust depletion/destruction for each identified gas structure. Overall, the Minispiral gas metallicity is $\sim 1-2.5~Z_\sun$, with a Wolf-Rayet star-driven ionizing radiation field, and significant nickel and iron dust destruction. Increased flux at energies $\gtrsim 41$ eV suggests that the compact gas structures experience an additional harder ionizing radiation source, which is most likely driven by localized fast radiative shocks from stellar winds, a hypothetical Sgr A* outflow, and/or interactions with the ambient medium. |
| title | Ionization Structure and Metal Enrichment of the Galactic Center Minispiral Observed with JWST |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13995 |