No Arabic abstract
We derive the first hard X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) by supermassive black holes (SMBHs), which gives an occurrence rate of TDEs per unit volume as a function of peak luminosity and redshift, utilizing an unbiased sample observed by the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI). On the basis of the light curves characterized by a power-law decay with an index of $-5/3$, a systematic search using the MAXI data in the first 37 months detected four TDEs, all of which have been found in the literature. To formulate the TDE XLF, we consider the mass function of SMBHs, that of disrupted stars, the specific TDE rate as a function of SMBH mass, and the fraction of TDEs with relativistic jets. We perform an unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the MAXI TDE list and check the consistency with the observed TDE rate in the ROSAT all sky survey. The results suggest that the intrinsic fraction of the jet-accompanying events is $0.0007$--$34%$. We confirm that at $z lesssim 1.5$ the contamination by TDEs to the hard X-ray luminosity functions of active galactic nuclei is not significant and hence that their contribution to the growth of SMBHs is negligible at the redshifts.
We present the first sample of TDEs discovered during the SRG all-sky survey. These 13 events were selected among X-ray transients detected on the 0<l<180 hemisphere by eROSITA during its second scan of the sky (10 June-14 Dec. 2020) and confirmed as TDEs by our optical follow-up observations. The most distant event occurred at z=0.581. One TDE continued to brighten after its discovery for at least another 6 months. The X-ray spectra can be described by emission from a standard accretion disk with kT between 0.05 and 0.5 keV, consistent with near-critical accretion onto black holes of a few 10^3 to 10^8 Msun, although super-critical accretion is possibly taking place. In 2 TDEs, a spectral hardening is observed 6 months after the discovery, possibly indicating the formation of an accretion disk corona. 4 TDEs show an optical brightening concurring with or preceding the X-ray outburst. All 13 TDEs are optically faint, with Lg/Lx<0.1 in most cases, where Lg and Lx are the intrinsic g-band and 0.2-6 keV luminosities, respectively. This sample is thus drastically different from TDEs selected at optical wavelengths. We have constructed a TDE X-ray luminosity function in the 10^42.5-10^45 erg/s range. The TDE volume rate decreases with increasing X-ray luminosity approximately as a power law with alpha=-0.6+/-0.2. This is similar to a trend observed for optically selected TDEs. The total rate at z<0.6 is (1.1+/-0.5)10^-5 TDEs/galaxy/year, an order of magnitude lower than previously estimated from optical studies. This might indicate that X-ray bright events constitute a minority of all TDEs, which would provide support to models predicting a strong dependence on the viewing angle. Our current TDE detection threshold can be lowered by a factor of ~2, which should make it possible to find ~700 TDEs by the end of the SRG survey over the entire sky.
We construct a new X-ray (2--10 keV) luminosity function of Compton-thin active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the local universe, using the first MAXI/GSC source catalog surveyed in the 4--10 keV band. The sample consists of 37 non-blazar AGNs at $z=0.002-0.2$, whose identification is highly ($>97%$) complete. We confirm the trend that the fraction of absorbed AGNs with $N_{rm H} > 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ rapidly decreases against luminosity ($L_{rm X}$), from 0.73$pm$0.25 at $L_{rm X} = 10^{42-43.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$ to 0.12$pm0.09$ at $L_{rm X} = 10^{43.5-45.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The obtained luminosity function is well fitted with a smoothly connected double power-law model whose indices are $gamma_1 = 0.84$ (fixed) and $gamma_2 = 2.0pm0.2$ below and above the break luminosity, $L_{*} = 10^{43.3pm0.4}$ ergs s$^{-1}$, respectively. While the result of the MAXI/GSC agrees well with that of HEAO-1 at $L_{rm X} gtsim 10^{43.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$, it gives a larger number density at the lower luminosity range. Comparison between our luminosity function in the 2--10 keV band and that in the 14--195 keV band obtained from the Swift/BAT survey indicates that the averaged broad band spectra in the 2--200 keV band should depend on luminosity, approximated by $Gammasim1.7$ for $L_{rm X} ltsim 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ while $Gammasim 2.0$ for $L_{rm X} gtsim 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. This trend is confirmed by the correlation between the luminosities in the 2--10 keV and 14--195 keV bands in our sample. We argue that there is no contradiction in the luminosity functions between above and below 10 keV once this effect is taken into account.
We develop a new model for X-ray emission from tidal disruption events (TDEs), applying stationary general relativistic ``slim disk accretion solutions to supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and then ray-tracing the photon trajectories from the image plane to the disk surface, including gravitational redshift, Doppler, and lensing effects self-consistently. We simultaneously and successfully fit the multi-epoch XMM-Newton X-ray spectra for two TDEs: ASASSN-14li and ASASSN-15oi. We test explanations for the observed, unexpectedly slow X-ray brightening of ASASSN-15oi, including delayed disk formation and variable obscuration by a reprocessing layer. We propose a new mechanism that better fits the data: a ``Slimming Disk scenario in which accretion onto an edge-on disk slows, reducing the disk height and exposing more X-rays from the inner disk to the sightline over time.For ASASSN-15oi, we constrain the SMBH mass to $4.0^{+2.5}_{-3.1} times 10^6M_odot$. For ASASSN-14li, the SMBH mass is $10^{+1}_{-7}times 10^6M_odot$ and the spin is $>0.3$. For both TDEs, our fitted masses are consistent with independent estimates; for ASASSN-14li, application of the external mass constraint narrows our spin constraint to $>0.85$. The mass accretion rate of ASASSN-14li decays slowly, as $propto t^{-1.1}$, perhaps due to inefficient debris circularization. Over $approx$1100 days, its SMBH has accreted $Delta M approx 0.17 M_odot$, implying a progenitor star mass of $> 0.34 M_odot$, i.e., no ``missing energy problem. For both TDEs, the hydrogen column density declines to the host galaxy plus Milky Way value after a few hundred days, suggesting a characteristic timescale for the depletion or removal of obscuring gas.
The discovery of jets from tidal disruption events (TDEs) rejuvenated the old field of relativistic jets powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes. In this Chapter, we first review the extensive multi-wavelength observations of jetted TDEs. Then, we show that these events provide valuable information on many aspects of jet physics from a new prospective, including the on-and-off switch of jet launching, jet propagation through the ambient medium, $gamma/$X-ray radiation mechanism, jet composition, and the multi-messenger picture. Finally, open questions and future prospects in this field are summarized.
Tidal disruption events are an excellent probe for supermassive black holes in distant inactive galaxies because they show bright multi-wavelength flares lasting several months to years. AT2019dsg presents the first potential association with neutrino emission from such an explosive event.