scholarly journals Optical Flares from the Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 337-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda E. Strubbe ◽  
Eliot Quataert
Keyword(s):  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Stellar Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Massive Black Holes ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
Nuclear Regions

A star that wanders too close to a massive black hole (BH) is shredded by the BH's tidal gravity. Stellar gas falls back to the BH, releasing a flare of energy. In anticipation of upcoming transient surveys, we predict the light curves and spectra of tidal flares as a function of time, highlighting the unique signatures of tidal flares in the optical and near-IR. Some of the gas initially bound to the BH is likely blown away when the fallback rate is super-Eddington at early times. This outflow produces an optical luminosity comparable to that of a supernova (Figure 1, left panel); such events have durations of ~ 10 days and may have been missed in supernova searches that exclude the nuclear regions of galaxies. When the fallback rate subsides below Eddington, the gas accretes onto the BH via a thin disk whose emission peaks in the UV to soft X-rays. Some of this emission is reprocessed by the unbound stellar debris, producing a spectrum of very broad emission lines, with no corresponding narrow forbidden lines (center panel). These lines are strongest for BHs with MBH ~ 105–106M⊙ and thus optical surveys are particularly sensitive to the lowest mass BHs in galactic nuclei. Calibrating our models to ROSAT and GALEX observations, we predict detection rates for Pan-STARRS, Palomar Transit Factory, and LSST (right panel) and highlight observational challenges in the optical. Pan-STARRS should detect at least several events per year — many more if current theoretical models of super-Eddington outflows are correct. These surveys will significantly improve our knowledge of stellar dynamics in galactic nuclei, the physics of super-Eddington accretion, the demography of intermediate mass BHs, and the role of tidal disruption in the growth of massive BHs.

scholarly journals A loud quasi-periodic oscillation after a star is disrupted by a massive black hole

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6426) ◽  
pp. 531-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dheeraj R. Pasham ◽  
Ronald A. Remillard ◽  
P. Chris Fragile ◽  
Alessia Franchini ◽  
Nicholas C. Stone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Periodic Oscillation ◽  
Host Galaxy ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Quasi Periodic Oscillation ◽  
Massive Black Holes ◽  
Tidal Forces

The tidal forces close to massive black holes can rip apart stars that come too close to them. As the resulting stellar debris spirals toward the black hole, the debris heats up and emits x-rays. We report observations of a stable 131-second x-ray quasi-periodic oscillation from the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li. Assuming the black hole mass indicated by host galaxy scaling relations, these observations imply that the periodicity originates from close to the event horizon and that the black hole is rapidly spinning. Our findings demonstrate that tidal disruption events can generate quasi-periodic oscillations that encode information about the physical properties of their black holes.

scholarly journals Constraining the stellar mass function from the deficiency of tidal disruption flares in the nuclei of massive galaxies

2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (3) ◽  
pp. 4413-4422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J D’Orazio ◽  
Abraham Loeb ◽  
James Guillochon
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Black Hole Mass ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Massive Black Holes ◽  
Massive Galaxies ◽  
O 10

ABSTRACT The rate of tidal disruption flares (TDFs) per mass of the disrupting black hole encodes information on the present-day mass function (PDMF) of stars in the clusters surrounding super massive black holes. We explore how the shape of the TDF rate with black hole mass can constrain the PDMF, with only weak dependence on black hole spin. We show that existing data can marginally constrain the minimum and maximum masses of stars in the cluster, and the high-mass end of the PDMF slope, as well as the overall TDF rate. With $\mathcal {O}(100)$ TDFs expected to be identified with the Zwicky Transient Facility, the overall rate can be highly constrained, but still with only marginal constraints on the PDMF. However, if ${\lesssim } 10 {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the TDFs expected to be found by LSST over a decade ($\mathcal {O}(10^3)$ TDFs) are identified, then precise and accurate estimates can be made for the minimum stellar mass (within a factor of 2) and the average slope of the high-mass PDMF (to within $\mathcal {O}(10{{\ \rm per\ cent}})$) in nuclear star clusters. This technique could be adapted in the future to probe, in addition to the PDMF, the local black hole mass function and possibly the massive black hole binary population.

scholarly journals Multifrequency Variability of AGN's: Continuum Variations from the Near IR to the X-rays

1994 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 131-143
Author(s):  
J. Clavel
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Line Emission ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
The Other ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Optical Telescope ◽  
Emission Process ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
The Continuum

Because they emit copiously over more than 10 decades in frequency, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) cannot be understood without the help of multiwavelength observations. On the other hand, variability monitoring has also proven to be invaluable in understanding the continuum and line emission process as well as the geometry of the innermost regions in these objects. Indeed, at the heart of AGN's lies an object which is so compact that the only way to probe its structure is the study of the temporal evolution of its spectrum. The equivalent resolution which can be achieved in this way is of the order of 10 microarcsecs, far beyond the capability of any UV or optical telescope.

scholarly journals X-ray flares from the stellar tidal disruption by a candidate supermassive black hole binary

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinwen Shu ◽  
Wenjie Zhang ◽  
Shuo Li ◽  
Ning Jiang ◽  
Liming Dou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Ultraviolet Emission ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Black Hole Binaries ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Black Hole Binary

AbstractOptical transient surveys have led to the discovery of dozens of stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) by massive black hole in the centers of galaxies. Despite extensive searches, X-ray follow-up observations have produced no or only weak X-ray detections in most of them. Here we report the discovery of delayed X-ray brightening around 140 days after the optical outburst in the TDE OGLE16aaa, followed by several flux dips during the decay phase. These properties are unusual for standard TDEs and could be explained by the presence of supermassive black hole binary or patchy obscuration. In either scenario, the X-rays can be produced promptly after the disruption but are blocked in the early phase, possibly by a radiation-dominated ejecta which leads to the bulk of optical and ultraviolet emission. Our findings imply that the reprocessing is important in the TDE early evolution, and X-ray observations are promising in revealing supermassive black hole binaries.

scholarly journals Defeating stochasticity: coalescence time-scales of massive black holes in galaxy mergers

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (1) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran Nasim ◽  
Alessia Gualandris ◽  
Justin Read ◽  
Walter Dehnen ◽  
Maxime Delorme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Equal Mass ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Massive Black Holes ◽  
Numerical Resolution

ABSTRACT The coalescence of massive black hole binaries (BHBs) in galactic mergers is the primary source of gravitational waves (GWs) at low frequencies. Current estimates of GW detection rates for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna and the Pulsar Timing Array vary by three orders of magnitude. To understand this variation, we simulate the merger of equal-mass, eccentric, galaxy pairs with central massive black holes and shallow inner density cusps. We model the formation and hardening of a central BHB using the fast multiple method as a force solver, which features a O(N) scaling with the number N of particles and obtains results equivalent to direct-summation simulations. At N ∼ 5 × 105, typical for contemporary studies, the eccentricity of the BHBs can vary significantly for different random realizations of the same initial condition, resulting in a substantial variation of the merger time-scale. This scatter owes to the stochasticity of stellar encounters with the BHB and decreases with increasing N. We estimate that N ∼ 107 within the stellar half-light radius suffices to reduce the scatter in the merger time-scale to ∼10 per cent. Our results suggest that at least some of the uncertainty in low-frequency GW rates owes to insufficient numerical resolution.

scholarly journals A Sample of Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies Detected via [Fe x] Coronal Line Emission: Active Galactic Nuclei and/or Tidal Disruption Events

2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Mallory Molina ◽  
Amy E. Reines ◽  
Colin J. Latimer ◽  
Vivienne Baldassare ◽  
Sheyda Salehirad
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Dwarf Galaxies ◽  
Line Emission ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Coronal Line ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Coronal Line Emission ◽  
Stellar Sources

Abstract The massive black hole (BH) population in dwarf galaxies (M BH ≲ 105 M ⊙) can provide strong constraints on the origin of BH seeds. However, traditional optical searches for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) only reliably detect high-accretion, relatively high-mass BHs in dwarf galaxies with low amounts of star formation, leaving a large portion of the overall BH population in dwarf galaxies relatively unexplored. Here, we present a sample of 81 dwarf galaxies (M ⋆ ≤ 3 × 109 M ⊙) with detectable [Fe x]λ6374 coronal line emission indicative of accretion onto massive BHs, only two of which were previously identified as optical AGNs. We analyze optical spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and find [Fe x]λ6374 luminosities in the range L [Fe x] ≈ 1036–1039 erg s−1, with a median value of 1.6 × 1038 erg s−1. The [Fe x] λ6374 luminosities are generally much too high to be produced by stellar sources, including luminous Type IIn supernovae (SNe). Moreover, based on known SNe rates, we expect at most eight Type IIn SNe in our sample. That said, the [Fe x]λ6374 luminosities are consistent with accretion onto massive BHs from AGNs or tidal disruption events (TDEs). We find additional indicators of BH accretion in some cases using other emission line diagnostics, optical variability, and X-ray and radio emission (or some combination of these). However, many of the galaxies in our sample only have evidence for a massive BH based on their [Fe x]λ6374 luminosities. This work highlights the power of coronal line emission to find BHs in dwarf galaxies missed by other selection techniques and to probe the BH population in bluer, lower-mass dwarf galaxies.

scholarly journals Mock catalogs for the extragalactic X-ray sky: Simulating AGN surveys with ATHENA and with the AXIS probe

2020 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. A184
Author(s):  
S. Marchesi ◽  
R. Gilli ◽  
G. Lanzuisi ◽  
T. Dauser ◽  
S. Ettori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Cosmic Time ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
X Rays ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Flux Limit ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Deep Fields ◽  
First Time

We present a series of new, publicly available mock catalogs of X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs), nonactive galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. These mocks are based on up-to-date observational results on the demographic of extragalactic X-ray sources and their extrapolations. They reach fluxes below 10−20 erg cm−2 s−1 in the 0.5–2 keV band, that is, more than an order of magnitude below the predicted limits of future deep fields, and they therefore represent an important tool for simulating extragalactic X-ray surveys with both current and future telescopes. We used our mocks to perform a set of end-to-end simulations of X-ray surveys with the forthcoming ATHENA mission and with the AXIS probe, a subarcsecond resolution X-ray mission concept proposed to the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey. We find that these proposed, next generation surveys may transform our knowledge of the deep X-ray Universe. As an example, in a total observing time of 15 Ms, AXIS would detect ∼225 000 AGNs and ∼50 000 nonactive galaxies, reaching a flux limit of f0.5−2 ∼ 5 × 10−19 erg cm−2 s−1 in the 0.5–2 keV band, with an improvement of over an order of magnitude with respect to surveys with current X-ray facilities. Consequently, 90% of these sources would be detected for the first time in the X-rays. Furthermore, we show that deep and wide X-ray surveys with instruments such as AXIS and ATHENA are expected to detect ∼20 000 z > 3 AGNs and ∼250 sources at redshift z > 6, thus opening a new window of knowledge on the evolution of AGNs over cosmic time and putting strong constraints on the predictions of theoretical models of black hole seed accretion in the early universe.

scholarly journals Relativistic loss cone dynamics: Infall and inspiral rates and branching ratios

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S324) ◽  
pp. 99-106
Author(s):  
Tal Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Stellar Dynamics ◽  
Branching Ratios ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Loss Cone ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Wave Emission ◽  
Gradual Decay

AbstractI describe recent advances in the formulation and modeling of relativistic stellar dynamics around a massive black hole, and the implications for the rates of infall (e.g. tidal disruption) and inspiral (e.g. gradual decay by gravitational wave emission) processes, and their branching ratios.

scholarly journals Tidal disruption of stripped red giants by massive black holes

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S252) ◽  
pp. 343-344
Author(s):  
Y. Lu ◽  
Y. F. Huang ◽  
S. N. Zhang ◽  
P. Lu
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Core Region ◽  
Red Giants ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Tidal Disruption ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Stellar Envelope ◽  
Massive Black Holes ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Red Giant

AbstractWe investigate the tidal disruption of a red giant whose envelope is thought to be stripped off when it passed by a massive black hole. Since the low-density stellar envelope would be lost, the tidal disruption of a red giant by massive black hole is regarded as primarily happening in its core region. The object is called a stripped red giant (SRG). Comparing our results with the three candidate tidal disruption events detected by Chandra in 2001 and 2002, i.e., the X-ray flares of NGC 5905, RX J1242.6-1119A, and RX J1624.9+7554, we argue that the tidal disruption of a stripped red giant is strongly ruled out.

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