Future prospects for measuring 1PPN parameters using observations of S2 and S62 at the Galactic center

¹ Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
² Departamento de Física Fundamental, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced, s/n, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
³ Instituto Universitario de Física Fundamental y Matemáticas, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced, s/n, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
⁴ Universitá di Napoli “Federico II”, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, Edificio G, Via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
⁵ INFN Sezione di Napoli, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, Edificio G, Via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy

^★ Corresponding author; rdellamonica@usal.es

Received: 30 October 2024
Accepted: 26 January 2025

Abstract

Context. The parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism offers an agnostic framework for evaluating theories of gravity that extend beyond general relativity. Departures from general relativity are represented by a set of dimensionless parameters that, at the first order in the expansion, reduce to β and γ, which describe deviations in spatial curvature and nonlinear superposition effects of gravity, respectively.

Aims. We exploit future observations of stars at the Galactic center, orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, to forecast the ability to constrain the first-order PPN parameters γ and β.

Methods. We have generated a mock catalog of astrometric and spectroscopic data for S2, based on the Schwarzschild metric, simulating observations over multiple orbital periods with the GRAVITY and SINFONI instruments. Our analysis includes the effects of relativistic orbital precession and line-of-sight velocity gravitational redshift. Since future data for S2 can only provide constraints on a linear combination of the PPN parameters β and γ, we also analyzed the impact of future observations of the gravitational lensing on stars that pass closer in the sky to Sgr A*, such as the known star S62, which can potentially provide tight constraints on the parameter γ, which alone regulates the amplitude of the astrometric deviations due to lensing.

Results. When combining lensing observations for S62, and the precise orbital tracking of S2, one obtains independent constraints on both γ (with a potential precision as good as and β (with a corresponding precision of ~2%), providing a precision test of general relativity and its extensions.