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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Optical Discovery of probable stellar tidal disruption flares
Astrophysical Journal, Volume 741, No. 2, Article 73, Year 2011
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Description
Using archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) multi-epoch imaging data (Stripe 82), we have searched for the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes in non-active galaxies. Two candidate tidal disruption events (TDEs) are identified. The TDE flares have optical blackbody temperatures of 2 × 104 K and observed peak luminosities of Mg = -18.3 and -20.4 (νL ν = 5 × 1042, 4 × 10 43 erg s-1, in the rest frame); their cooling rates are very low, qualitatively consistent with expectations for tidal disruption flares. The properties of the TDE candidates are examined using (1) SDSS imaging to compare them to other flares observed in the search, (2) UV emission measured by GALEX, and (3) spectra of the hosts and of one of the flares. Our pipeline excludes optically identifiable AGN hosts, and our variability monitoring over nine years provides strong evidence that these are not flares in hidden AGNs. The spectra and color evolution of the flares are unlike any SN observed to date, their strong late-time UV emission is particularly distinctive, and they are nuclear at high resolution arguing against these being first cases of a previously unobserved class of SNe or more extreme examples of known SN types. Taken together, the observed properties are difficult to reconcile with an SN or an AGN-flare explanation, although an entirely new process specific to the inner few hundred parsecs of non-active galaxies cannot be excluded. Based on our observed rate, we infer that hundreds or thousands of TDEs will be present in current and next-generation optical synoptic surveys. Using the approach outlined here, a TDE candidate sample with O(1) purity can be selected using geometric resolution and host and flare color alone, demonstrating that a campaign to create a large sample of TDEs, with immediate and detailed multi-wavelength follow-up, is feasible. A by-product of this work is quantification of the power spectrum of extreme flares in AGNs. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
van Velzen, Sjoert
United States, New York
The Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics
Netherlands, Amsterdam
Anton Pannekoek Instituut Voor Sterrenkunde
Netherlands, Nijmegen
Radboud Universiteit
Farrar, Glennys R.
United States, New York
The Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics
United States, New York
New York University
Gezari, Suvi
United States, Baltimore
Johns Hopkins University
Morrell, Nidia I.
Chile, La Serena
Las Campanas Observatory
Zaritsky, Dennis
United States, Tucson
The University of Arizona
Östman, Linda
Spain, Cerdanyola Del Valles
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Smith, Matthew W.L.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Gelfand, Joseph D.
United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
Nyu Abu Dhabi
Drake, Andrew J.
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Statistics
Citations: 235
Authors: 9
Affiliations: 11
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/0004-637X/741/2/73
ISSN:
0004637X
e-ISSN:
15384357
Research Areas
Cancer
Environmental
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Cohort Study
Study Approach
Quantitative