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A Tidal Disruption Event in a Nearby Galaxy Hosting an Intermediate Mass Black HoleWe report the serendipitous discovery of a bright point source flare in the Abell cluster A1795 with archival EUVE and Chandra observations. Assuming the EUVE emission is associated with the Chandra source, the X-ray 0.5-7 kiloelectronvolt flux declined by a factor of approximately 2300 over a time span of 6 years, following a power-law decay with index approximately equal to 2.44 plus or minus 0.40. The Chandra data alone vary by a factor of approximately 20. The spectrum is well fit by a blackbody with a constant temperature of kiloteslas approximately equal to 0.09 kiloelectronvolts (approximately equal to 10 (sup 6) Kelvin). The flare is spatially coincident with the nuclear region of a faint, inactive galaxy with a photometric redshift consistent at the 1 sigma level with the cluster (redshift = 0.062476).We argue that these properties are indicative of a tidal disruption of a star by a black hole (BH) with log(M (sub BH) / M (sub 1 solar mass)) approximately equal to 5.5 plus or minus 0.5. If so, such a discovery indicates that tidal disruption flares may be used to probe BHs in the intermediate mass range, which are very difficult to study by other means.
Document ID
20150011002
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
doi:10.1088/0004-637X/781/2/59
Authors
Donato, D (Maryland Univ. Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Cenko, S. B. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Covino, S. (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera Merate, Italy)
Troja, E. (Maryland Univ. Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Pursimo, T. (Nordic Optical Telescope Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain)
Cheung, C. C. (Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
Fox, O. (Science Collaborator Greenbelt, MD United States)
Kutyrev, A. (Maryland Univ. Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Campana, S. (Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Fugazza, D. (Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Landt, H. (Durham Univ. United Kingdom)
Butler, N. R. (Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Date Acquired
June 17, 2015
Publication Date
January 8, 2014
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher: The American Astronomical Society
Volume: 781
Issue: 2
Subject Category
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN21518
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG06EO90A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
bright point source flare
photometric redshift
Chandra

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