Source-intrinsic near-infrared properties of Sgr A*: Total intensity measurements

Understand

We present a comprehensive data description for Ks-band measurements of Sgr A*.

• We characterize the statistical properties of the variability of Sgr A* in the near-infrared, which we find to be consistent with a single-state process forming a power-law distribution of the flux density.
• We discover a linear rms-flux relation for the flux-density range up to 12 mJy on a timescale of 24 minutes.
• This and the power-law flux density distribution implies a phenomenological, formally non-linear statistical variability model with which we can simulate the observed variability and extrapolate its behavior to higher flux levels and longer timescales.