Mini-Spiral at the Galactic Center: A Link between its Structure and the Value of a Central Point Mass

The innermost 2 pc contain a rotating ring (“circumnuclear disk”) of molecular gas, neutral hydrogen, and dust with an embedded H II region called Sgr A West; a dense stellar cluster; and a compact nonthermal radio source Sgr A ∗ (for a recent review, see Blitz et al. 1993). The clumped, spiral-shaped morphology of Sgr A West, sometimes called lthe mini-spiral”, has been a subject of numerous speculations concerning its origin (for a review, see Genzel & Townes 1987). Lacy et al. (1991) demonstrated that both the kinematics and shape of a part of Sgr A West can be fairly well approximated using an one-armed density-wave model.