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Roman Galactic Center Project
Program ID 19078
Science Category Stellar Populations
Program Type Analysis
Category Large
Principal Investigator Tuan Do
PI Institution University of California, Los Angeles
Co-Investigators
  • Matthew Hosek (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Lingfeng Wei (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Andrea Ghez (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Shoko Sakai (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Smadar Naoz (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Greg Martinez (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Mark Morris (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Jessica Lu (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Anna Pusack (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Anna Ciurlo (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Devin Chu (University of Hawaii)
  • Abhimat Gautam (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Sparsh Vashist (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Kalvyn Adams (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Rebecca Lewis (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Zoë Haggard (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Sean Terry (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Rainer Schödel (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC))
  • Paco Nogueras-Lara (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC))
  • Álvaro Martínez (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC))
Abstract We propose the Roman Galactic Center Dynamics Program to answer three long-standing questions at the Galactic center: (1) What are the physical properties, origin, and evolution of our Galactic nucleus? (2) How do stars form in extreme environments? (3) How do star clusters dynamically evolve in galactic nuclei? The Roman GBTDS gives us the unique opportunity to model the entire central 25 to 50 region of the Milky Way dynamically for the first time. The angular resolution allows us to probe the dynamics of stars from those next to the supermassive black hole, to the nuclear star cluster, and the nuclear stellar disk. GBTDS is expected to deliver proper motion measurements of better than 0.4 mas/yr for 7 million stars, a factor of 100 greater than previous proper motion studies of this region. This program aims to improve the measurement of the gravitational potential, one of the largest sources of uncertainty in modeling the Galactic center, by a factor of 10. The deep and large area coverage will enable the first detection of the tidal tails of the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, providing a benchmark for cluster dynamical evolution and constraining the impact of tidal stripping on measurements of the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF). This survey will also enable the most sensitive study (by 6.5 magnitudes deeper compared to previous searches) for undiscovered dissolving young star clusters in the region. This will allow us to establish the origin of apparently isolated young massive stars at the GC, whether they are associated with tidally-disrupted young clusters or if they truly formed in isolation via a mode of star formation unique to massive stars or the GC environment.