Birth of a relativistic outflow in the unusual γ-ray transient Swift J164449.3+573451

Zauderer, B. A.; Berger, E.; Söderberg, A. M.; Loeb, Abraham; Narayan, Ramesh; Frail, D. A.; Petitpas, G.; Brunthaler, A.; Chornock, R.; Carpenter, John M.; Pooley, G. G.; Mooley, K. P.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Margutti, R.; Fox, D. B.; Nakar, Ehud; Patel, Nimesh; Volgenau, N. H.; Culverhouse, T.; Bietenholz, M. F.; Rupen, M. P.; Max-Moerbeck, W.; Readhead, A. C. S.; Richards, J. L.; Shepherd, M. C.; Storm, Shaye; Hull, Charles L. H.

doi:10.1038/nature10366

Cited by 414 publications

(524 citation statements)

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“…We conclude with several important implications of our results. First, the velocity and kinetic energy of the outflow in ASASSN14li are significantly lower than inferred for the two relativistic γ-ray TDEs previously detected in the radio (Figure 6), which represent  a few percent of the TDE population (Bloom et al 2011;Burrows et al 2011;Zauderer et al 2011;Mimica et al 2015). Although the TDE sample with detected radio emission is small, this is reminiscent of the same relation observed in Type Ib/c core-collapse supernovae (Type Ib/c SNe) and long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs), in which a small fraction of events (LGRBs: ∼1% by volumetric rate) produce energetic relativistic outflows while the bulk of the population (Type Ib/c SNe) produces lower energy non-relativistic outflows ( Figure 6; Margutti et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is the same model used to fit the radio emission from the relativistic TDE Sw J1644+57 (Zauderer et al 2011(Zauderer et al , 2013Berger et al 2012), as well as from core-collapse SNe and GRBs. We follow the procedures of Barniol Duran et al (2013) by assuming the outflow energy is minimized when the electron and magnetic field energy densities are in equipartition (Pacholczyk 1970;Scott & Readhead 1977;Chevalier 1998).…”

Section: Synchrotron Emission Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Theoretical calculations indicate that most tidal disruption events (TDEs) lead to superEddington fallback, which in turn drives outflows (Rees 1988;Evans & Kochanek 1989;Strubbe & Quataert 2009;Guillochon & Ramirez-Ruiz 2013). The discovery of luminous radio emission from the γ-ray TDE Sw J1644+57 revealed the formation of a relativistic jetted outflow (Zauderer et al 2011;Berger et al 2012), but such events represent at most a few percent of the TDE population (Bloom et al 2011;Burrows et al 2011;Zauderer et al 2011;Mimica et al 2015). While the sample of well-studied TDE candidates has expanded greatly in recent years, direct evidence for outflows in the bulk of the TDE population, discovered through optical, ultraviolet (UV), and X-ray observations, has been lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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DISCOVERY OF AN OUTFLOW FROM RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li

Alexander

Berger

Guillochon

et al. 2016

ApJL

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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)×10 47 erg, a velocity of ≈12,000-36,000 km s −1 , and a mass of ≈3×10 −5 -7 × 10 −4 M e . 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, R R 2.5 ( ) r µ -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 nonrelativistic outflows are ubiquitous in TDEs, and that future, more sensitive, radio surveys will uncover similar events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Synchrotron Emission Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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DISCOVERY OF AN OUTFLOW FROM RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li

Alexander

Berger

Guillochon

et al. 2016

ApJL

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229

290

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“…The areal densities of type Ibc supernovae(SNe Ibc; Berger et al 2003;Soderberg et al 2006b), low-luminosity GRBs(LLGRB; Soderberg et al 2006a;Barniol Duran et al 2015), and tidal disruption events(TDEs) without strong jets Holoien et al 2015;van Velzen et al 2016) are so small that it will be quite rare to detect them as false positive transients. Although off-axis long GRBs(LGRBs; van Eerten et al 2010; Ghirlanda et al 2014) and tidal disruption events with strong jets (TDE(jet); Burrows et al 2011;Zauderer et al 2011;Berger et al 2012) can be false positive transients, they will be identified earlier through their optical counterparts or can be filtered by identifying their host galaxies since the typical distance of these events is far beyond the detectable distance of the GW networks.…”

Section: False Positives: Extragalactic Radio Transients and Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radio Counterparts of Compact Binary Mergers Detectable in Gravitational Waves: A Simulation for an Optimized Survey

Hotokezaka

Nissanke

Hallinan

et al. 2016

ApJ

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113

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Mergers of binary neutron stars and black hole-neutron star binaries produce gravitational-wave(GW) emission and outflows with significant kinetic energies. These outflows result in radio emissions through synchrotron radiation. We explore the detectability of these synchrotron-generated radio signals by follow-up observations of GW merger events lacking a detection of electromagnetic counterparts in other wavelengths. We model radio light curves arising from (i) sub-relativistic merger ejecta and (ii) ultra-relativistic jets. The former produce radio remnants on timescales of a few years and the latter produce γ-ray bursts in the direction of the jet and orphan-radio afterglows extending over wider angles on timescales of weeks. Based on the derived light curves, we suggest an optimized survey at 1.4 GHz with five epochs separated by a logarithmic time interval. We estimate the detectability of the radio counterparts of simulated GW-merger events to be detected by advanced LIGO and Virgo by current and future radio facilities. The detectable distances for these GW merger events could be as high as 1 Gpc. Around 20%-60% of the long-lasting radio remnants will be detectable in the case of the moderate kinetic energy of 3 10 50 · erg and a circum-merger density of -0.1 cm 3 or larger, while 5%-20% of the orphan-radio afterglows with kinetic energy of 10 48 erg will be detectable. The detection likelihood increases if one focuses on the well-localizable GW events. We discuss the background noise due to radio fluxes of host galaxies and false positives arising from extragalactic radio transients and variable activegalacticnuclei, and we show that the quiet radio transient sky is of great advantage when searching for the radio counterparts.

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“…Most TDE candidates more or less show the above properties. Swift J164449.3+573451 and Swift J2058.4+0516 are two exceptions, which are hard X-ray transients and are probably due to observation of a relativistic jet pointed toward us [15][16][17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of a tidal disruption event candidate from the 2XMM catalog

Lin

Carrasco

Grupe

et al. 2012

EPJ Web of Conferences

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Abstract. Stars approaching a supermassive black hole (SMBH) can be tidally disrupted and subsequently accreted, providing a unique way to find and study inactive SMBHs. We report on our discovery of a new tidal disruption event candidate, 2XMMi J184725.1-631724, with unprecedented ultrasoft X-ray spectra near the flare peak. It lies toward the center of an inactive galaxy at z = 0.0353. It was detected serendipitously in two XMM-Newton observations separated by 211 days, with the flux increasing by a factor of ∼9. The source was not detected in X-rays by ROSAT in 1992, indicating a long-term variability factor of >64; neither by Swift in 2011, implying a flux decay factor of >12 since the last XMM-Newton observation. The XMM-Newton X-ray spectra are dominated by a strong cool thermal disk (>80%, tens of eV) with the luminosity appearing to follow the L∝T 4 relation, often seen in the thermal state of the BH X-ray binaries. Both XMM-Newton observations show large variability on timescales of hours. This can be explained as due to fast variations in the mass accretion rate, maybe caused by the shocks during the tidal disruption of the star.

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Birth of a relativistic outflow in the unusual γ-ray transient Swift J164449.3+573451

Cited by 414 publications

References 19 publications

DISCOVERY OF AN OUTFLOW FROM RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li

DISCOVERY OF AN OUTFLOW FROM RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li

Radio Counterparts of Compact Binary Mergers Detectable in Gravitational Waves: A Simulation for an Optimized Survey

Discovery of a tidal disruption event candidate from the 2XMM catalog

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