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The first systematically identified repeating partial tidal disruption event
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abstract
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star enters the tidal radius of a supermassive black hole (SMBH). If the star only grazes the tidal radius, a fraction of the stellar mass will be accreted in a partial TDE (pTDE). The remainder can continue orbiting and may re-disrupted at pericenter, causing a repeating pTDE. pTDEs may be as or more common than full TDEs (fTDEs), yet few are known. In this work, we present the discovery of the first repeating pTDE from a systematically-selected sample, AT\,2020vdq. AT\,2020vdq was originally identified as an optically- and radio-flaring TDE. Around $3$ years after its discovery, it rebrightened dramatically and rapidly in the optical. The optical flare was remarkably fast and luminous compared to previous TDEs. It was accompanied by extremely broad (${\sim}0.1c$) optical/UV spectral features and faint X-ray emission ($L_X \sim 3\times10^{41}$\,erg\,s$^{-1}$), but no new radio-emitting component. Based on the transient optical/UV spectral features and the broadband light curve, we show that AT\,2020vdq is a repeating pTDE. We then use it to constrain TDE models; in particular, we favor a star originally in a very tight binary system that is tidally broken apart by the Hills mechanism. We also constrain the repeating pTDE rate to be $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-5}$ yr$^{-1}$ galaxy$^{-1}$, with uncertainties dominated by the unknown distribution of pTDE repeat timescales. In the Hills framework, this means the binary fraction in the galactic nucleus is of the order few percent.
Forward citations
Cited by 10 Pith papers
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Binary disruptions driven by massive disks around massive black holes
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Lost and Found - A gallery of overlooked optical nuclear transients from the ZTF archive
Archival ZTF data reveal 19 nuclear transients, including two repeated tidal-disruption-event candidates, one >5-year outburst, and three extreme nuclear transients.
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The Double Tidal Disruption Event AT 2022dbl Implies That at Least Some "Standard" Optical TDEs are Partial Disruptions
The repeating optical-UV tidal disruption event AT 2022dbl is the first robust case of a 'normal' TDE being a partial disruption of the same star.
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Spectral Insights and Evolutionary Pathways of Globular Cluster ULX in NGC 1399: A Two-Decade X-ray and Optical Study
GCU7, a bright X-ray and optical source in a globular cluster in NGC 1399, is best explained as a young neutron star accreting from a helium white dwarf, not an intermediate-mass black hole tidally disrupting a star.
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Discovery of a years-delayed radio flare from an unusually slow-evolved tidal disruption event
SDSS J1115+0544, once thought to be a changing-look AGN, is now found to be a slow tidal disruption event with a radio flare delayed by about three years.
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AT2021aeuk: A Repeating Partial Tidal Disruption Event Candidate in a Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy
AT2021aeuk shows two similar optical flares with a V-shaped X-ray dip lagging the second flare by ~40 days, interpreted as a repeating partial tidal disruption event in a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy.
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On the Double: Two Luminous Flares from the Nearby Tidal Disruption Event ASASSN-22ci (AT2022dbl) and Connections to Repeating TDE Candidates
ASASSN-22ci shows two similar TDE flares separated by 720 days, likely from repeated partial disruptions of the same star, with the next flare predicted for early February 2026.
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Modeling the UV/Optical light curve of re-brightening tidal disruption events
A two-flare model based on repeated partial disruptions of the same star reproduces the UV/optical light curves of AT 2022dbl and AT 2023adr and forecasts their third outbursts.
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