The IRS 13E complex is an unusual concentration of massive , early-type stars at a projected distance of \sim 0.13 pc from the Milky Way ’ s central supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* ( Sgr A* ) .
Because of their similar proper motion and their common nature as massive , young stars it has recently been suggested that IRS 13E may be the remnant of a massive stellar cluster containing an intermediate-mass black hole ( IMBH ) that binds its members gravitationally in the tidal field of Sgr A* .
Here , we present an analysis of the proper motions in the IRS 13E environment that combines the currently best available data with a time line of 10 years Based on observations at the Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) of the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ) on Paranal in Chile .
We find that an IMBH in IRS 13E must have a minimum mass of \sim 10 ^ { 4 } M _ { \odot } in order to bind the source complex gravitationally .
This high mass limit in combination with the absence so far of compelling evidence for a non-thermal radio and X-ray source in IRS 13E make it appear unlikely that an IMBH exists in IRS 13E that is sufficiently massive to bind the system gravitationally .