A Library of Synthetic X-Ray Spectra for Fitting Tidal Disruption Events

Abstract

We present a tabulated version of our slim-disk model for fitting tidal disruption events (TDEs). We create a synthetic X-ray spectral library by ray-tracing stationary general relativistic slim disks and including gravitational redshift, Doppler, and lensing effects self-consistently. We introduce the library to reduce computational expense and increase access for fitting future events. Fitting requires interpolation between the library spectra; the interpolation error in the synthetic flux is generally <10% (it can rise to 40% when the disk is nearly edge-on). We fit the X-ray spectra of the TDEs ASASSN-14li and ASASSN-15oi, successfully reproducing our earlier constraints on black hole mass M • and spin a • from full on-the-fly ray-tracing. We use the library to fit mock observational data to explore the degeneracies among parameters, finding that (1) spectra from a hotter thermal disk and edge-on inclination angle offer tighter constraints on M • and a •; (2) the constraining power of spectra on M • and a • increases as a power law with the number of X-ray counts, and the index of the power law is higher for hotter thermal disk spectra; (3) multiepoch X-ray spectra partially break the degeneracy between M • and a •; (4) the time-dependent level of X-ray absorption can be constrained from spectral fitting. The tabulated model and slim-disk model are available at https://doi.org/10.25739/hfhz-xn60. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.