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An Extremely Luminous Outburst from a Relativistic Tidal Disruption Event

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2012

A. J. Levan
A. J. Levan*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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We present the discovery and monitoring observations of Swift 1644+57, a luminous outburst from the nucleus of a galaxy at z = 0.35. Precise astrometry ties the source to within a few hundred parsecs of the nucleus of its host, and suggests a link to the massive black hole that probably resides there. The high luminosity and rapid variability are strongly indicative of a beamed source. We suggest that this event is best explained by the tidal disruption of a passing star by the supermassive black hole, which simultaneously created a powerful panchromatic explosion. However, it has also been proposed that such events may be related to the core collapse of massive stars. Future observations of a sample of similar events, focussing on their locations within the hosts, should distinguish in a straightforward manner between the two proposals.

Keywords

gamma-rays: burstsgalaxies: activeaccretion
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S285: New Horizons in Time-Domain Astronomy , September 2011 , pp. 349 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

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