universe Article Estimating the Parameters of Extended Gravity Theories with the Schwarzschild Precession of S2 Star Duško Borka 1,* , Vesna Borka Jovanovi´ c 1 , Salvatore Capozziello 2,3,4 , Alexander F. Zakharov 5,6 and Predrag Jovanovi´ c 7   Citation: Borka, D.; Borka Jovanovi´ c, V.; Capozziello, S.; Zakharov, A.F.; Jovanovi´ c, P. Estimating the Parameters of Extended Gravity Theories with the Schwarzschild Precession of S2 Star. Universe 2021, 7, 407. https://doi.org/10.3390/ universe7110407 Academic Editor: Vyacheslav Ivanovich Dokuchaev Received: 30 September 2021 Accepted: 22 October 2021 Published: 28 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Theoretical Physics and Condensed Matter Physics (020), Vinˇ ca Institute of Nuclear Sciences-National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, P.O. Box 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia; vborka@vinca.rs 2 Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Pancini”, Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, Edificio G, Via Cinthia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy; capozzie@na.infn.it 3 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Sez. di Napoli, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, Edificio G, Via Cinthia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy 4 Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Largo S. Marcellino 10, I-80138 Napoli, Italy 5 Bogoliubov Laboratory for Theoretical Physics, JINR, 141980 Dubna, Russia; alex.fed.zakharov@gmail.com 6 National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Kashirskoe Highway 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia 7 Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, P.O. Box 74, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia; pjovanovic@aob.rs * Correspondence: dusborka@vinca.rs Abstract: After giving a short overview of previous results on constraining of Extended Gravity by stellar orbits, we discuss the Schwarzschild orbital precession of S2 star assuming the congruence with predictions of General Relativity (GR). At the moment, the S2 star trajectory is remarkably fitted with the first post-Newtonian approximation of GR. In particular, both Keck and VLT (GRAVITY) teams declared that the gravitational redshift near its pericenter passage for the S2 star orbit corresponds to theoretical estimates found with the first post-Newtonian (pN) approximation. In 2020, the GRAVITY Collaboration detected the orbital precession of the S2 star around the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic Center and showed that it is close to the GR prediction. Based on this observational fact, we evaluated parameters of the Extended Gravity theories with the Schwarzschild precession of the S2 star. Using the mentioned method, we estimate the orbital precession angles for some Extended Gravity models including power-law f ( R), general Yukawa-like corrections, scalar– tensor gravity, and non-local gravity theories formulated in both metric and Palatini formalism. In this consideration, we assume that a gravitational field is spherically symmetric, therefore, alternative theories of gravity could be described only with a few parameters. Specifically, considering the orbital precession, we estimate the range of parameters of these Extended Gravity models for which the orbital precession is like in GR. Then we compare these results with our previous results, which were obtained by fitting the simulated orbits of S2 star to its observed astrometric positions. In case of power-law f ( R), generic Yukawa-like correction, scalar–tensor gravity and non-local gravity theories, we were able to obtain a prograde orbital precession, like in GR. According to these results, the method is a useful tool to evaluate parameters of the gravitational potential at the Galactic Center. Keywords: alternative theories of gravity; supermassive black hole; stellar dynamics 1. Introduction Several modified gravity theories have been proposed as possible extensions of Ein- stein’s theory of gravity [1]. Among their main motivations, there is the possibility to explain cosmological and astrophysical data at different scales without introducing dark energy and dark matter, but just taking into account further degrees of freedom of the gravitational field emerging from geometric corrections [2]. They have to explain different observations ranging from solar systems, neutron stars, binary pulsars, spiral and eliptical Universe 2021, 7, 407. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7110407 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe