G2 can Illuminate the Black Hole Population near the Galactic Center

Understand

Galactic nuclei are expected to be densely populated with stellar and intermediate mass black holes.

• Exploring this population will have important consequences for the observation prospects of gravitational waves as well as understanding galactic evolution.
• The gas cloud G2 currently approaching Sgr A* provides an unprecedented opportunity to probe the black hole and neutron star population of the Galactic nucleus.
• We examine the possibility of a G2-black hole encounter and its detectability with current X-ray satellites, such as Chandra and NuSTAR.