Publication Date:
2011-08-26
Description:
Active galactic nuclei, which are powered by long-term accretion onto central supermassive black holes, produce relativistic jets with lifetimes of at least one million years, and the observation of the birth of such a jet is therefore unlikely. Transient accretion onto a supermassive black hole, for example through the tidal disruption of a stray star, thus offers a rare opportunity to study the birth of a relativistic jet. On 25 March 2011, an unusual transient source (Swift J164449.3+573451) was found, potentially representing such an accretion event. Here we report observations spanning centimetre to millimetre wavelengths and covering the first month of evolution of a luminous radio transient associated with Swift J164449.3+573451. The radio transient coincides with the nucleus of an inactive galaxy. We conclude that we are seeing a newly formed relativistic outflow, launched by transient accretion onto a million-solar-mass black hole. A relativistic outflow is not predicted in this situation, but we show that the tidal disruption of a star naturally explains the observed high-energy properties and radio luminosity and the inferred rate of such events. The weaker beaming in the radio-frequency spectrum relative to gamma-rays or X-rays suggests that radio searches may uncover similar events out to redshifts of z approximately 6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zauderer, B A -- Berger, E -- Soderberg, A M -- Loeb, A -- Narayan, R -- Frail, D A -- Petitpas, G R -- Brunthaler, A -- Chornock, R -- Carpenter, J M -- Pooley, G G -- Mooley, K -- Kulkarni, S R -- Margutti, R -- Fox, D B -- Nakar, E -- Patel, N A -- Volgenau, N H -- Culverhouse, T L -- Bietenholz, M F -- Rupen, M P -- Max-Moerbeck, W -- Readhead, A C S -- Richards, J -- Shepherd, M -- Storm, S -- Hull, C L H -- England -- Nature. 2011 Aug 24;476(7361):425-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10366.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. bzauderer@cfa.harvard.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21866155" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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