_version_ 1866916941355024384
author Karmen, Mitchell
Gezari, Suvi
Lambrides, Erini
Akins, Hollis B.
Norman, Colin
Casey, Caitlin M.
Pierel, Justin
Coulter, David
Rest, Armin
Fox, Ori
Ajay, Yukta
Allen, Natalie
Drakos, Nicole E.
Fujimoto, Seiji
Gomez, Sebastian
Gozaliasl, Ghassem
Ilbert, Olivier
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lane, Zachary G.
McCracken, Henry Joy
Paquereau, Louise
Rhodes, Jason
Robertson, Brant E.
Shuntov, Marko
Siebert, Matthew R.
Toft, Sune
Wevers, Thomas
Zenati, Yossef
author_facet Karmen, Mitchell
Gezari, Suvi
Lambrides, Erini
Akins, Hollis B.
Norman, Colin
Casey, Caitlin M.
Pierel, Justin
Coulter, David
Rest, Armin
Fox, Ori
Ajay, Yukta
Allen, Natalie
Drakos, Nicole E.
Fujimoto, Seiji
Gomez, Sebastian
Gozaliasl, Ghassem
Ilbert, Olivier
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lane, Zachary G.
McCracken, Henry Joy
Paquereau, Louise
Rhodes, Jason
Robertson, Brant E.
Shuntov, Marko
Siebert, Matthew R.
Toft, Sune
Wevers, Thomas
Zenati, Yossef
contents The rates and properties of tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide valuable insights into their host galaxy central stellar densities and the demographics of their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs). TDEs have been observed only at low redshifts ($z \lesssim 1$), due to the difficulty in conducting deep time-domain surveys. In this work, we present the discovery of a high-redshift TDE candidate, HZTDE-1, in the COSMOS-Web survey with JWST's NIRCam, using a novel selection technique based on color and morphology. We first outline a methodology for identifying high-z TDEs in deep infrared imaging surveys, leveraging their unique spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and morphologies of these transients. We apply this technique to COSMOS-Web in filters F115W, F150W, F277W, and F444W, and identify HZTDE-1, a transient point source relative to archival UltraVISTA infrared observations. If we assume it is a TDE, we estimate its photometric redshift to be $z=5.02^{+1.32}_{-1.11}$. HZTDE-1 cannot be explained by reasonable supernova or AGN models. However, we cannot rule out a superluminous supernova at $z\gtrsim3$. If confirmed with follow-up observations, HZTDE-1 would represent the highest-redshift TDE discovery to date, and would suggest an enhancement of the TDE rate in the high-redshift universe. Our method, which can be applied to future deep surveys with JWST and Roman, offers a pathway to identify TDEs at $z>4$ and probe black hole demographics at early cosmic times.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_13248
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle JWST Discovery of a High-Redshift Tidal Disruption Event Candidate in COSMOS-Web
Karmen, Mitchell
Gezari, Suvi
Lambrides, Erini
Akins, Hollis B.
Norman, Colin
Casey, Caitlin M.
Pierel, Justin
Coulter, David
Rest, Armin
Fox, Ori
Ajay, Yukta
Allen, Natalie
Drakos, Nicole E.
Fujimoto, Seiji
Gomez, Sebastian
Gozaliasl, Ghassem
Ilbert, Olivier
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lane, Zachary G.
McCracken, Henry Joy
Paquereau, Louise
Rhodes, Jason
Robertson, Brant E.
Shuntov, Marko
Siebert, Matthew R.
Toft, Sune
Wevers, Thomas
Zenati, Yossef
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The rates and properties of tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide valuable insights into their host galaxy central stellar densities and the demographics of their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs). TDEs have been observed only at low redshifts ($z \lesssim 1$), due to the difficulty in conducting deep time-domain surveys. In this work, we present the discovery of a high-redshift TDE candidate, HZTDE-1, in the COSMOS-Web survey with JWST's NIRCam, using a novel selection technique based on color and morphology. We first outline a methodology for identifying high-z TDEs in deep infrared imaging surveys, leveraging their unique spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and morphologies of these transients. We apply this technique to COSMOS-Web in filters F115W, F150W, F277W, and F444W, and identify HZTDE-1, a transient point source relative to archival UltraVISTA infrared observations. If we assume it is a TDE, we estimate its photometric redshift to be $z=5.02^{+1.32}_{-1.11}$. HZTDE-1 cannot be explained by reasonable supernova or AGN models. However, we cannot rule out a superluminous supernova at $z\gtrsim3$. If confirmed with follow-up observations, HZTDE-1 would represent the highest-redshift TDE discovery to date, and would suggest an enhancement of the TDE rate in the high-redshift universe. Our method, which can be applied to future deep surveys with JWST and Roman, offers a pathway to identify TDEs at $z>4$ and probe black hole demographics at early cosmic times.
title JWST Discovery of a High-Redshift Tidal Disruption Event Candidate in COSMOS-Web
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.13248