K-band spectra of stars within central 1pc of the MW

K-band spectroscopy of these stars was obtained with the medium spectral resolution integral-field spectrograph NIFS on Gemini North using laser-guided star adaptive optics. Using spectral template fitting with the MARCS synthetic spectral grid, we find that there is a large variation in the metallicity, with stars ranging from [M/H]<-1.0 to above solar metallicity.

About 6% of the stars have [M/H]<-0.5. This result is in contrast to previous observations with smaller samples that show stars at the Galactic center having approximately solar metallicity with only small variations. Our current measurement uncertainties are dominated by systematics in the model, especially at [M/H]>0, where there are stellar lines not represented in the model.