SWIFT J2058.4+0516: DISCOVERY OF A POSSIBLE SECOND RELATIVISTIC TIDAL DISRUPTION FLARE?

By S. Cenko, H. Krimm, A. Horesh, A. Rau, D. Frail, J. Kennea, A. Levan, S. T. Holland, N. Butler, R. Quimby and 11 more. 2011

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We report the discovery by the Swift hard X-ray monitor of the transient source Swift J2058.4+0516 (Sw J2058+05). Our multi-wavelength follow-up campaign uncovered a long-lived (duration ≳ months), luminous X-ray (LX, iso ≈ 3 × 1047 erg s−1) and radio (νLν, iso ≈ 1042 erg s−1) counterpart. The associated optical emission, however, from which we measure a redshift of 1.1853, is relatively faint, and this is not due to a large amount of dust extinction in the host galaxy. Based on numerous similarities with the recently discovered GRB 110328A/Swift J164449.3+573451 (Sw J1644+57), we suggest that Sw J2058+05 may be the second member of a new class of relativistic outbursts resulting from the tidal disruption of a star by a supermassive black hole. If so, the relative rarity of these sources (compared with the expected rate of tidal disruptions) implies that either these outflows are extremely narrowly collimated (θ < 1°) or only a small fraction of tidal disruptions generate relativistic ejecta. Analogous to the case of long-duration gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae, we speculate that rapid spin of the black hole may be a necessary condition to generate the relativistic component. Alternatively, if powered by gas accretion (i.e., an active galactic nucleus (AGN)), Sw J2058+05 would seem to represent a new mode of variability in these sources, as the observed properties appear largely inconsistent with known classes of AGNs capable of generating relativistic jets (blazars, narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b1022bf595907f545018fee85543da3efd7178cb

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Citations in the corpus

• Swift J1112.2−8238: a candidate relativistic tidal disruption flare (2015, methodology): “A number of TDF candidates have been found in the UV (e.g. Gezari et al. 2008, 2009, 2012), soft X-rays (e.g. Brandt, Pounds, & Fink 1995; Grupe et al. 1995; Bade, Komossa, & Dahlem 1996; Cappelluti et al. 2009) and the optical (e.g. van Velzen et al. 2011; Cenko et al. 2012; Arcavi et al. 2014).”
• New Physical Insights about Tidal Disruption Events from a Comprehensive Observational Inventory at X-Ray Wavelengths (2016, methodology): “The properties of this source led Cenko et al. (2012b) to conclude that Swift J2058+05 was another non-thermal (relativistic) jetted X-ray TDE.”
• A Unified Model for Tidal Disruption Events (2018, unknown): “Second, only three TDEs have been observed to produce transient relativistic jets (e.g., Bloom et al. 2011; Burrows et al. 2011; Levan et al. 2011; Cenko et al. 2012; Brown et al. 2015).”
• A bright year for tidal disruptions (2015, background): “TDE flares have been discovered at hard X-ray (e.g., Bloom et al. 2011, Burrows et al. 2011; Cenko et al. 2012b, Pasham et al. 2015), soft X-ray (e.g., Bade et al. 1996, Grupe et al. 1999, Komossa & Bade 1999, Komossa & Greiner 1999, Donley et al. 2002, Esquej et al. 2008, Maksym et al. 2010,…”
• Six months of multiwavelength follow-up of the tidal disruption candidate asassn-14li and implied tde rates from asas-sn (2015, methodology): “4+0516; Cenko et al. (2012b), and GALEX candidates D1-9, D3-13, and D23H1; Gezari et al. (2008, 2009)).”
• ASASSN-14ae: a tidal disruption event at 200 Mpc (2014, background): “4+0516 (Cenko et al. 2012b), and GALEX candidates D1-9, D3-13, and D23H-1 (Gezari et al., 2008; Gezari et al. 2009).”
• THE ULTRAVIOLET-BRIGHT, SLOWLY DECLINING TRANSIENT PS1-11af AS A PARTIAL TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT (2013, background): “The 2680 Å feature would be on the blue edge of the observed wavelength range for the first spectrum of PTF 10iya, but does not appear to be present (Cenko et al. 2012a).”
• Revisiting Optical Tidal Disruption Events with iPTF16axa (2017, background): “…and Chandra (Maksym et al. 2013; Donato et al. 2014), until the serendipitous discovery of jetted TDE candidates with hard X-ray spectra and super-Eddington luminosities by the Swift satellite (Bloom et al. 2011; Burrows et al. 2011; Levan et al. 2011; Zauderer et al. 2011; Cenko et al. 2012).”
• ASASSN-15oi: a rapidly evolving, luminous tidal disruption event at 216 Mpc (2016, background): “…et al. 2012), ultraviolet (e.g., Stern et al. 2004; Gezari et al. 2006, 2008, 2009), and optical (e.g., van Velzen et al. 2011; Gezari et al. 2012; Cenko et al. 2012a; Arcavi et al. 2014; Chornock et al. 2014; Holoien et al. 2014a; Vinkó et al. 2015; Holoien et al. 2016) wavelengths—see Komossa…”