2016ApJ...819L..25A -
Astrophys. J., 819, L25 (2016/March-2)
Discovery of an outflow from radio observations of the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li.
ALEXANDER K.D., BERGER E., GUILLOCHON J., ZAUDERER B.A. and WILLIAMS P.K.G.
Abstract (from CDS):
We report the discovery of transient radio emission from the nearby optically discovered tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li (distance of 90 Mpc), making it the first typical TDE detected in the radio, and unambiguously pointing to the formation of a non-relativistic outflow with a kinetic energy of ≃(4-10) x 1047 erg, a velocity of ≃12,000-36,000 km s–1, and a mass of ≃3 x 10–5-7 x 10–4 M☉. We show that the outflow was ejected on 2014 August 11-25, in agreement with an independent estimate of the timing of super-Eddington accretion based on the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray observations, and that the ejected mass corresponds to about 1%-10% of the mass accreted in the super-Eddington phase. The temporal evolution of the radio emission also uncovers the circumnuclear density profile, ρ(R)∝R–2.5 on a scale of about 0.01 pc, a scale that cannot be probed via direct measurements even in the nearest supermassive black holes. Our discovery of radio emission from the nearest well-studied TDE to date, with a radio luminosity lower than all previous limits, indicates that non-relativistic outflows are ubiquitous in TDEs, and that future, more sensitive, radio surveys will uncover similar events.
Abstract Copyright:
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Journal keyword(s):
accretion, accretion disks - black hole physics - galaxies: nuclei - radiation mechanisms: non-thermal - radio continuum: galaxies - relativistic processes
Simbad objects:
8
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