학술논문
A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Andreoni, Igor; Coughlin, Michael W.; Perley, Daniel A.; Yao, Yuhan; Lu, Wenbin; Cenko, S. Bradley; Kumar, Harsh; Anand, Shreya; Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Postigo, Antonio de Ugarte; Sagues-Carracedo, Ana; Schulze, Steve; Kann, D. Alexander; Kulkarni, S. R.; Sollerman, Jesper; Tanvir, Nial; Rest, Armin; Izzo, Luca; Somalwar, Jean J.; Kaplan, David L.; Ahumada, Tomas; Anupama, G. C.; Auchettl, Katie; Barway, Sudhanshu; Bellm, Eric C.; Bhalerao, Varun; Bloom, Joshua S.; Bremer, Michael; Bulla, Mattia; Burns, Eric; Campana, Sergio; Chandra, Poonam; Charalampopoulos, Panos; Cooke, Jeff; D'Elia, Valerio; Das, Kaustav Kashyap; Dobie, Dougal; Fernández, José Feliciano Agüí; Freeburn, James; Fremling, Cristoffer; Gezari, Suvi; Goode, Simon; Graham, Matthew; Hammerstein, Erica; Karambelkar, Viraj R.; Kilpatrick, Charles D.; Kool, Erik C.; Krips, Melanie; Laher, Russ R.; Leloudas, Giorgos; Levan, Andrew; Lundquist, Michael J.; Mahabal, Ashish A.; Medford, Michael S.; Miller, M. Coleman; Möller, Anais; Mooley, Kunal; Nayana, A. J.; Nir, Guy; Pang, Peter T. H.; Paraskeva, Emmy; Perley, Richard A.; Petitpas, Glen; Pursiainen, Miika; Ravi, Vikram; Ridden-Harper, Ryan; Riddle, Reed; Rigault, Mickael; Rodriguez, Antonio C.; Rusholme, Ben; Sharma, Yashvi; Smith, I. A.; Stein, Robert D.; Thöne, Christina; Tohuvavohu, Aaron; Valdes, Frank; van Roestel, Jan; Vergani, Susanna D.; Wang, Qinan; Zhang, Jielai
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Abstract
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bursts of electromagnetic energy released when supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of galaxies violently disrupt a star that passes too close. TDEs provide a new window to study accretion onto SMBHs; in some rare cases, this accretion leads to launching of a relativistic jet, but the necessary conditions are not fully understood. The best studied jetted TDE to date is Swift J1644+57, which was discovered in gamma-rays, but was too obscured by dust to be seen at optical wavelengths. Here we report the optical discovery of AT2022cmc, a rapidly fading source at cosmological distance (redshift z=1.19325) whose unique lightcurve transitioned into a luminous plateau within days. Observations of a bright counterpart at other wavelengths, including X-rays, sub-millimeter, and radio, supports the interpretation of AT2022cmc as a jetted TDE containing a synchrotron "afterglow", likely launched by a SMBH with spin $a \gtrsim 0.3$. Using 4 years of Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey data, we calculate a rate of $0.02 ^{+ 0.04 }_{- 0.01 }$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$ for on-axis jetted TDEs based on the luminous, fast-fading red component, thus providing a measurement complementary to the rates derived from X-ray and radio observations. Correcting for the beaming angle effects, this rate confirms that about 1% of TDEs have relativistic jets. Optical surveys can use AT2022cmc as a prototype to unveil a population of jetted TDEs.
Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature
Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature