No Arabic abstract
We present radio observations of the tidal disruption event candidate (TDE) XMMSL1 J0740$-$85 spanning 592 to 875 d post X-ray discovery. We detect radio emission that fades from an initial peak flux density at 1.6 GHz of $1.19pm 0.06$ mJy to $0.65pm 0.06$ mJy suggesting an association with the TDE. This makes XMMSL1 J0740$-$85 at $d=75$ Mpc the nearest TDE with detected radio emission to date and only the fifth TDE with radio emission overall. The observed radio luminosity rules out a powerful relativistic jet like that seen in the relativistic TDE Swift J1644+57. Instead we infer from an equipartition analysis that the radio emission most likely arises from a non-relativistic outflow similar to that seen in the nearby TDE ASASSN-14li, with a velocity of about $10^4$ km s$^{-1}$ and a kinetic energy of about $10^{48}$ erg, expanding into a medium with a density of about $10^2$ cm$^{-3}$. Alternatively, the radio emission could arise from a weak initially-relativistic but decelerated jet with an energy of $sim 2times 10^{50}$ erg, or (for an extreme disruption geometry) from the unbound debris. The radio data for XMMSL1 J0740$-$85 continues to support the previous suggestion of a bimodal distribution of common non-relativistic isotropic outflows and rare relativistic jets in TDEs (in analogy with the relation between Type Ib/c supernovae and long-duration gamma-ray bursts). The radio data also provide a new measurement of the circumnuclear density on a sub-parsec scale around an extragalactic supermassive black hole.
We survey the properties of stars destroyed in TDEs as a function of BH mass, stellar mass and evolutionary state, star formation history and redshift. For Mbh<10^7Msun, the typical TDE is due to a M*~0.3Msun M-dwarf, although the mass function is relatively flat for $M*<Msun. The contribution from older main sequence stars and sub-giants is small but not negligible. From Mbh~10^7.5-10^8.5Msun, the balance rapidly shifts to higher mass stars and a larger contribution from evolved stars, and is ultimately dominated by evolved stars at higher BH masses. The star formation history has little effect until the rates are dominated by evolved stars. TDE rates should decline very rapidly towards higher redshifts. The volumetric rate of TDEs is very high because the BH mass function diverges for low masses. However, any emission mechanism which is largely Eddington-limited for low BH masses suppresses this divergence in any observed sample and leads to TDE samples dominated by Mbh~10^6.0-10^7.5Msun BHs with roughly Eddington peak accretion rates. The typical fall back time is relatively long, with 16% having Tfb<10^(-1) years (37 days), and 84% having longer time scales. Many residual rate discrepancies can be explained if surveys are biased against TDEs with these longer Tfb, which seems very plausible if Tfb has any relation to the transient rise time. For almost any BH mass function, systematic searches for fainter, faster time scale TDEs in smaller galaxies, and longer time scale TDEs in more massive galaxies are likely to be rewarded.
We present the discovery of the fading radio transient FIRST J153350.8+272729. The source had a maximum observed 5-GHz radio luminosity of $8times10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in 1986, but by 2019 had faded by a factor of nearly 400. It is located 0.15 arcsec from the center of a galaxy (SDSS J153350.89+272729) at 147 Mpc, which shows weak Type II Seyfert activity. We show that a tidal disruption event (TDE) is the preferred scenario for FIRST J153350.8+272729, although it could plausibly be interpreted as the afterglow of a long-duration gamma-ray burst. This is only the second TDE candidate to be first discovered at radio wavelengths. Its luminosity fills a gap between the radio afterglows of sub-relativistic TDEs in the local universe, and relativistic TDEs at high redshifts. The unusual properties of FIRST J153350.8+272729 (ongoing nuclear activity in the host galaxy, high radio luminosity) motivate more extensive TDE searches in untargeted radio surveys.
We present detailed radio observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) AT2019dsg, obtained with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and spanning $55-560$ days post-disruption. We find that the peak brightness of the radio emission increases until ~200 days and subsequently begins to decrease steadily. Using the standard equipartition analysis, including the effects of synchrotron cooling as determined by the joint VLA-ALMA spectral energy distributions, we find that the outflow powering the radio emission is in roughly free expansion with a velocity of $approx 0.07c$, while its kinetic energy increases by a factor of about 5 from 55 to 200 days and plateaus at $approx 5times 10^{48}$ erg thereafter. The ambient density traced by the outflow declines as $approx R^{-1.6}$ on a scale of $approx (1-4)times 10^{16}$ cm ($approx 6300-25000$ $R_s$), followed by a steeper decline to $approx 6times 10^{16}$ cm ($approx 37500$ $R_s$). Allowing for a collimated geometry, we find that to reach even mildly relativistic velocities ($Gamma=2$) the outflow requires an opening angle of $theta_japprox 2^circ$, which is narrow even by the standards of GRB jets; a truly relativistic outflow requires an unphysically narrow jet. The outflow velocity and kinetic energy in AT2019dsg are typical of previous non-relativistic TDEs, and comparable to those from Type Ib/c supernovae, raising doubts about the claimed association with a high-energy neutrino event.
The ultrasoft X-ray flare 2XMMi J184725.1-631724 was serendipitously detected in two XMM-Newton observations in 2006 and 2007, with a peak luminosity of 6X10^43 erg/s. It was suggested to be a tidal disruption event (TDE) because its position is consistent with the center of an inactive galaxy. It is the only known X-ray TDE candidate whose X-ray spectra showed evidence of a weak steep powerlaw component besides a dominant supersoft thermal disk. We have carried out multiwavelength follow-up observations of the event. Multiple X-ray monitorings show that the X-ray luminosity has decayed significantly after 2011. Especially, in our deep Chandra observation in 2013, we detected a very faint counterpart that supports the nuclear origin of 2XMMi J184725.1-631724 but had an X-ray flux a factor of ~1000 lower than in the peak of the event. Compared with follow-up UV observations, we found that there might be some enhanced UV emission associated with the TDE in the first XMM-Newton observation. We also obtained a high-quality UV-optical spectrum with the SOAR and put a very tight constraint on the persistent nuclear activity, with a persistent X-ray luminosity expected to be lower than the peak of the flare by a factor of >2700. Therefore, our multiwavelength follow-up observations strongly support the TDE explanation of the event.
We have analyzed archival VLBA data for Cygnus A between 2002 and 2013, to search for radio emission from the transient discovered in 2015 by citet{per18} approximately 0.4arcsec~ from the nucleus of Cygnus A (Cyg A-2). citet{per18} use VLA and VLBA archival data (between 1989 and 1997) to show that the transient rises in flux density by a factor of at least five in less than approximately 20 years. With the additional data presented here, we revise the rise time to between approximately four years and six years, based on a new detection of the source at 15.4 GHz from October 2011. Our results strengthen the interpretation of Cyg A-2 as the result of a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE), as we can identify the location of the compact object responsible for the TDE and can estimate the angular expansion speed of the resulting radio emitting structures, equivalent to an apparent expansion speed of $<0.9c$. While our results are consistent with recent X-ray analyses, we can rule out a previously suggested date of early 2013 for the timing of the TDE. We favour a timing between early 2009 and late 2011. Applying the model of citet{nak11}, we suggest a TDE causing a mildly relativistic outflow with a (density-dependent) total energy $>10^{49}$ erg. Due to the improved temporal coverage of our archival measurements, we find that it is unlikely that Cyg A-2 has previously been in a high luminosity radio state over the last 30 years.