Lense-Thirring Precession after a Supermassive Black Hole Disrupts a Star
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1866910478641397760 |
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| author | Pasham, Dheeraj R. Zajacek, Michal Nixon, C. J. Coughlin, Eric R. Sniegowska, Marzena Janiuk, Agnieszka Czerny, Bozena Wevers, Thomas Guolo, Muryel Ajay, Yukta Loewenstein, Michael |
| author_facet | Pasham, Dheeraj R. Zajacek, Michal Nixon, C. J. Coughlin, Eric R. Sniegowska, Marzena Janiuk, Agnieszka Czerny, Bozena Wevers, Thomas Guolo, Muryel Ajay, Yukta Loewenstein, Michael |
| contents | An accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) after it disrupts a star is expected to be initially misaligned with respect to the black hole's equatorial plane. This misalignment induces relativistic torques (the Lense-Thirring effect) on the disk, causing the disk to precess at early times, while at late times the disk aligns with the black hole and precession terminates. Here, using high-cadence X-ray monitoring observations of a TDE, we report the discovery of strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations from a TDE. These X-ray modulations are separated by 17.0$^{+1.2}_{-2.4}$ days and persist for roughly 130 days during the early phase of the TDE. Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion flow can produce this X-ray variability, but other physical mechanisms, such as the radiation-pressure instability, cannot be ruled out. Assuming typical TDE parameters, i.e., a solar-like star with the resulting disk extending at-most to so-called circularization radius, and that the disk precesses as a rigid body, we constrain the disrupting black hole's dimensionless spin parameter to be 0.05<|a|<0.5. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_09689 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Lense-Thirring Precession after a Supermassive Black Hole Disrupts a Star Pasham, Dheeraj R. Zajacek, Michal Nixon, C. J. Coughlin, Eric R. Sniegowska, Marzena Janiuk, Agnieszka Czerny, Bozena Wevers, Thomas Guolo, Muryel Ajay, Yukta Loewenstein, Michael High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena An accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) after it disrupts a star is expected to be initially misaligned with respect to the black hole's equatorial plane. This misalignment induces relativistic torques (the Lense-Thirring effect) on the disk, causing the disk to precess at early times, while at late times the disk aligns with the black hole and precession terminates. Here, using high-cadence X-ray monitoring observations of a TDE, we report the discovery of strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations from a TDE. These X-ray modulations are separated by 17.0$^{+1.2}_{-2.4}$ days and persist for roughly 130 days during the early phase of the TDE. Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion flow can produce this X-ray variability, but other physical mechanisms, such as the radiation-pressure instability, cannot be ruled out. Assuming typical TDE parameters, i.e., a solar-like star with the resulting disk extending at-most to so-called circularization radius, and that the disk precesses as a rigid body, we constrain the disrupting black hole's dimensionless spin parameter to be 0.05<|a|<0.5. |
| title | Lense-Thirring Precession after a Supermassive Black Hole Disrupts a Star |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09689 |