Quasi-periodic x-ray eruptions years after a nearby tidal disruption event

Abstract

Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are luminous bursts of soft X-rays from the nuclei of galaxies, repeating on timescales of hours to weeks. The mechanism behind these rare systems is uncertain, but most theories involve accretion disks around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) undergoing instabilities or interacting with a stellar object in a close orbit. It has been suggested that this disk could be created when the SMBH disrupts a passing star implying that many QPEs should be preceded by observable tidal disruption events (TDEs). Two known QPE sources show long-term decays in quiescent luminosity consistent with TDEs and two observed TDEs have exhibited X-ray flares consistent with individual eruptions . TDEs and QPEs also occur preferentially in similar galaxies. However, no confirmed repeating QPEs have been associated with a spectroscopically confirmed TDE or an optical TDE observed at peak brightness. Here we report the detection of nine X-ray QPEs with a mean recurrence time of approximately 48 h from AT2019qiz, a nearby and extensively studied optically selected TDE16. We detect and model the X-ray, ultraviolet (UV) and optical emission from the accretion disk and show that an orbiting body colliding with this disk provides a plausible explanation for the QPEs.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Nicholl, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2555-3192 Pasham, D.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1386-7861 Mummery, A. Guolo, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5063-0751 Gendreau, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7115-2819 Dewangan, G.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1589-2075 Ferrara, E.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7828-7708 Remillard, R. Bonnerot, C. Chakraborty, J. Hajela, A. Dhillon, V.S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5944-4480 Gillan, A.F. Greenwood, J. Huber, M.E. Janiuk, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1622-3036 Salvesen, G. van Velzen, S. Aamer, A. Alexander, K.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8297-2473 Angus, C.R. Arzoumanian, Z. Auchettl, K. Berger, E. de Boer, T. Cendes, Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7007-6295 Chambers, K.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6965-7789 Chen, T.-W. Chornock, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7706-5668 Fulton, M.D. Gao, H. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1015-5367 Gillanders, J.H. Gomez, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6395-6702 Gompertz, B.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5826-0548 Fabian, A.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9378-4072 Herman, J. Ingram, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5311-9078 Kara, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0172-0854 Laskar, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1792-2338 Lawrence, A. Lin, C.-C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7272-5129 Lowe, T.B. Magnier, E.A. Margutti, R. McGee, S.L. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3255-3139 Minguez, P. Moore, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8385-3727 Nathan, E. Oates, S.R. Patra, K.C. Ramsden, P. Ravi, V. Ridley, E.J. Sheng, X. Smartt, S.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8229-1731 Smith, K.W. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9535-3199 Srivastav, S. Stein, R. Stevance, H.F. Turner, S.G.D. Wainscoat, R.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1341-0952 Weston, J. Wevers, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4043-9400 Young, D.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1229-2499
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2024 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	High-energy astrophysics; Time-domain astronomy; Transient astrophysical phenomena
Dates:	Published: 24 October 2024 Published (online): 9 October 2024 Accepted: 5 September 2024
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL ST/Z000033/1
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2024 13:08
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2024 13:08
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08023-6
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41586-024-08023-6
Related URLs:	PubMed URL Dataset
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218929