A Census of Archival X-Ray Spectra for Modeling Tidal Disruption Events
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Department of Astronomy, Steward Observatory, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2023-03-12
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Aaron Goldtooth et al 2023 PASP 135 034101Rights
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are highly energetic phenomena that occur when a star is tidally disrupted by the central massive black hole in a galaxy. Fitting the observed X-ray spectra of TDEs with a first-principles, general-relativistic slim-disk model for the emission from the inner accretion disk can constrain the black hole mass M • and dimensionless spin a •. Multiepoch spectra can break degeneracies in parameter estimation, particularly when they include a period of super-Eddington mass accretion. Even one observed super-Eddington epoch can be useful. Constraints on {M •, a •} improve as a power law with the number of spectral counts; the power-law index is higher for a higher mass accretion rate. These results are supported by the successful modeling of real spectra in the nearby (0.0206 ≤ z ≤ 0.145) TDEs ASASSN-14li, 3XMM J150052.0+015452, and 3XMM J215022.4-055108, which were observed over multiple epochs with >1 ks exposure times. Guided by these results, we create an updated and expanded TDE catalog from the Open TDE compilation. We then explore the XMM-Newton and Chandra archives to identify 37 TDE candidates with promising spectra for constraining {M •, a •} with slim-disk model fits. At least seven TDEs are likely associated with intermediate-mass black holes. Three of the 24 TDEs with multiepoch UV/optical photometry from Swift have late-time observations that allow their light curves to be compared directly to model predictions from the X-ray spectral fits. Existing X-ray spectra for other TDEs can be augmented with future optical/UV data. Ultimately, our new TDE catalog will reveal the {M •, a •} distributions traced by TDEs, thereby discriminating among black hole growth scenarios and providing insights on general relativity and dark matter particle candidates. The new TDE catalog is here: https://github.com/aarongoldtooth/Census-of-TDE-and-Archival-X-Ray-UV-Data/blob/main/Full%20New%20TDE%20Catalog%20(Published).tsv, and the codes used to construct it are here: https://github.com/aarongoldtooth/Census-of-TDE-and-Archival-X-Ray-UV-Data. © 2023. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved.Note
Open access articleISSN
0004-6280Version
Final Published Versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1088/1538-3873/acb9bc
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2023. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.