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2. The rise and fall of the iron-strong nuclear transient PS16dtmTanja Petrushevska, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Context. Thanks to the advent of large-scale optical surveys, a diverse set of flares from the nuclear regions of galaxies has recently been discovered. These include the disruption of stars by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies – nuclear transients known as tidal disruption events (TDEs). Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can show extreme changes in the brightness and emission line intensities, often referred to as changing-look AGN (CLAGN). Given the physical and observational similarities, the interpretation and distinction of nuclear transients as CLAGN or TDEs remains difficult. One of the obstacles of making progress in the field is the lack of well-sampled data of long-lived nuclear outbursts in AGN.
Aims. Here, we study PS16dtm, a nuclear transient in a Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy, which has been proposed to be a TDE candidate. Our aim is to study the spectroscopic and photometric properties of PS16dtm, in order to better understand the outbursts originating in NLSy1 galaxies.
Methods. Our extensive multiwavelength follow-up that spans around 2000 days includes photometry and spectroscopy in the UV/optical, as well as mid-infrared (MIR) and X-ray observations. Furthermore, we improved an existing semiempirical model in order to reproduce the spectra and study the evolution of the spectral lines.
Results. The UV/optical light curve shows a double peak at ∼50 and ∼100 days after the first detection, and it declines and flattens afterward, reaching preoutburst levels after 2000 days of monitoring. The MIR light curve rises almost simultaneously with the optical, but unlike the UV/optical which is approaching the preoutburst levels in the last epochs of our observations, the MIR emission is still rising at the time of writing. The optical spectra show broad Balmer features and the strongest broad Fe II emission ever detected in a nuclear transient. This broad Fe II emission was not present in the archival preoutburst spectrum and almost completely disappeared +1868 days after the outburst. We found that the majority of the flux of the broad Balmer and Fe II lines is produced by photoionization. We detect only weak X-ray emission in the 0.5−8 keV band at the location of PS16dtm, at +848, +1130, and +1429 days past the outburst. This means that the X-ray emission continues to be lower by at least an order of magnitude, compared to archival, preoutburst measurements.
Conclusions. We confirm that the observed properties of PS16dtm are difficult to reconcile with normal AGN variability. The TDE scenario continues to be a plausible explanation for the observed properties, even though PS16dtm shows differences compared to TDE in quiescent galaxies. We suggest that this event is part of a growing sample of TDEs that show broad Balmer line profiles and Fe II complexes. We argue that the extreme variability seen in the AGN host due to PS16dtm may have easily been misclassified as a CLAGN, especially if the rising part of the light curve had been missed. This implies that some changing look episodes in AGN may be triggered by TDEs. Imaging and spectroscopic data of AGN with good sampling are needed to enable testing of possible physical mechanisms behind the extreme variability in AGN.
Keywords: nuclear transients, supermassive black holes, tidal disruption events, active galactic nuclei
Published in RUNG: 24.01.2023; Views: 294; Downloads: 12
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3. The rise and fall of the nuclear transient PS16dtmTanja Petrushevska, 2022, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: Thanks to the advent of large-scale optical surveys, a diverse set of flares from the nuclear regions of galaxies has recently been discovered. These include the disruption of stars by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies - nuclear transients known as tidal disruption events (TDEs). Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can show extreme changes in the brightness and emission line intensities, often referred to as changing-look AGN (CLAGN). Given the physical and observational similarities, the interpretation and distinction of nuclear transients as CLAGN or TDEs remains difficult. One of the obstacles of making progress in the field is the lack of well-sampled data of long-lived nuclear outbursts in AGN. I will present PS16dtm, a nuclear transient in a Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy which has been proposed to be a TDE candidate. I will show our multi-year spectroscopic and photometric study of PS16dtm, which can help us to better understand the outbursts originating in NLSy1 galaxies.
Keywords: supermassive black holes, active galactic nuclei, tidal disruption events
Published in RUNG: 09.11.2022; Views: 372; Downloads: 3
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4. The rise and fall of the iron-strong nuclear transient PS16dtmTaj Jankovič, 2022, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: Thanks to the advent of large-scale optical surveys, a diverse set of flares from the nuclear regions of galaxies has recently been discovered. These include the disruption of stars by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies - nuclear transients known as tidal disruption events (TDEs). Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can show extreme changes in the brightness and emission line intensities, often referred to as changing-look AGN (CLAGN). Given the physical and observational similarities, the interpretation and distinction of nuclear transients as CLAGN or TDEs remains difficult. One of the obstacles of making progress in the field is the lack of well-sampled data of long-lived nuclear outbursts in AGN. I will present PS16dtm, a nuclear transient in a Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy which has been proposed to be a TDE candidate. I will show our multi-year spectroscopic and photometric study of PS16dtm, which can help us to better understand the outbursts originating in NLSy1 galaxies.
Keywords: supermassive black holes, active galactic nuclei, transients
Published in RUNG: 09.11.2022; Views: 363; Downloads: 3
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5. The rise and fall of the nuclear transient PS16dtmTanja Petrushevska, 2022, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: Thanks to the advent of large-scale optical surveys, a diverse set of flares from the nuclear regions of galaxies has recently been discovered. These include the disruption of stars by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies - nuclear transients known as tidal disruption events (TDEs). Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can show extreme changes in the brightness and emission line intensities, often referred to as changing-look AGN (CLAGN). Given the physical and observational similarities, the interpretation and distinction of nuclear transients as CLAGN or TDEs remains difficult. One of the obstacles of making progress in the field is the lack of well-sampled data of long-lived nuclear outbursts in AGN. I will present PS16dtm, a nuclear transient in a Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy which has been proposed to be a TDE candidate. I will show our multi-year spectroscopic and photometric study of PS16dtm, which can help us to better understand the outbursts originating in NLSy1 galaxies.
Keywords: supermassive black holes, tidal disruption events, active galactic nucleus
Published in RUNG: 09.11.2022; Views: 368; Downloads: 2
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7. Tidal Disruption Events seen through the eyes of Vera C. Rubin ObservatoryKatja Bučar Bricman, 2021, doctoral dissertation Abstract: Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) are rare transients, which are considered to be promising tools in probing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their environments in quiescent galaxies, accretion physics, and jet formation mechanisms. The majority of $\approx$ 60 detected TDEs has been discovered with large field of view time-domain surveys in the last two decades. Currently, about 10 TDEs are discovered per year, and we expect this number will increase largely once the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins its observations.
In this work we demonstrate and explore the capabilities of the LSST to study TDEs. To begin with, we simulate LSST observations of TDEs over $10$ years of survey duration by including realistic SED models from MOSFiT into the simulation framework of the LSST. SEDs are then converted into observed fluxes and light curves are simulated with the LSST observing strategy minion_1016. Simulated observations are used to estimate the number of TDEs the LSST is expected to observe and to assess the possibility of probing the SMBH mass distribution in the Universe with the observed TDE sample. We find that the LSST has a potential of observing ~1000 TDEs per year, the exact number depending on the SMBH mass distribution and the adopted observing strategy. In spite of this large number, we find that probing the SMBH mass distribution with LSST observed TDEs will not be straightforward, especially at the low-mass end. This is largely attributed to the fact that TDEs caused by low-mass black holes ($\le 10^6 M_\odot$) are less luminous and shorter than TDEs by heavier SMBHs ($> 10^6 M_\odot$), and the probability of observationally missing them with LSST is higher.
Second, we built a MAF TDE metric for photometric identification of TDEs based on LSST data. We use the metric to evaluate the performance of different proposed survey strategies in identifying TDEs with pre-defined identification requirements. Since TDEs are blue in color for months after peak light, which separates them well from SNe and AGN, we include u-band observations as one of the criteria for a positive identification. We find that the number of identified TDEs strongly depends of the observing strategy and the number of u-band visits to a given field in the sky. Observing strategies with a larger number of u-band observations perform significantly better. For these strategies up to 10% of LSST observed TDEs satisfy the identification requirements.
Keywords: Ground-based ultraviolet, optical and infrared telescopes
Astronomical catalogs, atlases, sky surveys, databases, retrieval systems, archives, Black holes, Galactic nuclei (including black holes), circumnuclear matter, and bulges, Infall, accretion, and accretion disks
Published in RUNG: 03.01.2022; Views: 1479; Downloads: 40
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8. Observing TDEs in the era of LSSTKatja Bricman, 2020, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: The upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will observe ~18000 square degrees of the Southern sky and is expected to discover thousands of transients every night due to its large coverage of the sky and its observing strategy. Being an exceptional transient hunter, we expect the LSST to increase the current observed sample of Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) by a factor of ~1000 in 10 years of survey duration. TDEs are one of the most promising phenomena in the study of dormant supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the Universe, and if their observed optical light curves are sampled frequently enough, TDEs can serve as indicators of SMBH mass. We present our simulations of TDE observations with the LSST, the resulting SMBH mass distributions of observed TDEs, and the efficiency of different proposed observing strategies of the LSST in finding these rare transients.
Keywords: Tidal Disruption Events, Supermassive black holes, sky surveys
Published in RUNG: 04.01.2021; Views: 1598; Downloads: 0
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10. TDEs with LSSTKatja Bricman, 2018, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is an upcoming ground-based survey telescope in Chile, which will produce a multi-color survey of 18000 square degrees of the Southern Sky during its 10 years of observations. Due to its large coverage of the sky and its observing strategy it will be a perfect tool in search for transient astrophysical events, including rare Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs). TDEs occur when a star passes close by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a center of a galaxy and gets disrupted by its tidal forces. These events emit a bright flare of light, which can be observed to cosmological distances.
In the seminar I will provide an overview of the LSST and TDEs, and present the preliminary results on the estimated absolute rates of TDE detection in 10 years of LSST operations, which were obtained by simulations of TDE light curves with an end-to-end LSST simulations framework.
Keywords: Tidal Disruption Events, Supermassive Black Holes, Sky Surveys
Published in RUNG: 04.01.2021; Views: 1790; Downloads: 61
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