AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 85 Science with the Submillimeter Array
Special Session, Tuesday, 10:00-11:30am, January 10, 2006, Virginia

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[85.07] SMA Studies of the Galactic Center Region

D. P. Marrone (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

The Submillimeter Array is the first imaging interferometer to operate at submillimeter wavelengths. With its equatorial latitude, good site, and high sensitivity, it is well suited for studies of the Galactic Center region. I will present a variety of SMA results from the Galactic Center, with particular emphasis on polarimetric and monitoring observations of Sgr A*. Many of the observations presented were obtained as part of an SMA Legacy Science project from the summer of 2005, which was dedicated to the Galactic Center. These include a variety of topics including mapping of molecular emission from the circumnuclear disk, star formation searches, and studies of the structure and motions of gas in Sgr B2.

Observations of Sgr A* employ a new polarimetry system designed for use with all three existing SMA receiver bands (230, 345, and 690 GHz). The 230 and 690 GHz bands can be observed simultaneously, providing wide instantaneous frequency coverage. This observing mode, and to a lesser extent the 10 GHz sideband separation of the sensitive 230 GHz receivers, provides up to an order of magnitude improvement in the sensitivity to the previously undetected Faraday rotation measure in this source. I will discuss first results from multi-frequency Sgr A* polarimetry campaigns at the SMA. I will also present observations of the variability of this source in the submillimeter, many of which were coordinated with radio, infrared, and X-ray observatories.


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