Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07380 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866915770816004096 |
|---|---|
| author | Wise, Jacob L. Perley, Daniel A. Sarin, Nikhil Matsumoto, Tatsuya Hinds, K-Ryan Yao, Yuhan Sollerman, Jesper Schulze, Steve Bochenek, Aleksandra Coughlin, Michael W. De, Kishalay Dekany, Richard Frederick, Sara Fremling, Christoffer Gezari, Suvi Graham, Matthew J. Ho, Anna Y. Q. Kulkarni, Shrinivas Laher, Russ R. Omand, Conor Johnson, Natalya Sharma, Yashvi Taggart, Kirsty Ward, Charlotte Wold, Avery Yan, Lin |
| author_facet | Wise, Jacob L. Perley, Daniel A. Sarin, Nikhil Matsumoto, Tatsuya Hinds, K-Ryan Yao, Yuhan Sollerman, Jesper Schulze, Steve Bochenek, Aleksandra Coughlin, Michael W. De, Kishalay Dekany, Richard Frederick, Sara Fremling, Christoffer Gezari, Suvi Graham, Matthew J. Ho, Anna Y. Q. Kulkarni, Shrinivas Laher, Russ R. Omand, Conor Johnson, Natalya Sharma, Yashvi Taggart, Kirsty Ward, Charlotte Wold, Avery Yan, Lin |
| contents | We present optical/UV photometric and spectroscopic observations, as well as X-ray and radio follow-up, of the extraordinary event AT2019cmw. With a peak bolometric luminosity of ~$\mathrm{10^{45.6}\,erg\,s^{-1}}$, it is one of the most luminous thermal transients ever discovered. Extensive spectroscopic follow-up post-peak showed only a featureless continuum throughout its evolution. This, combined with its nuclear location, blue colour at peak and lack of prior evidence of an AGN in its host lead us to interpret this event as a `featureless' tidal disruption event (TDE). It displays photometric evolution atypical of most TDEs, cooling from ~30 kK to ~10 kK in the first ~300 days post-peak, with potential implications for future photometric selection of candidate TDEs. No X-ray or radio emission is detected, placing constraints on the presence of on-axis jetted emission or a visible inner-accretion disk. Modelling the optical light curve with existing theoretical prescriptions, we find that AT2019cmw may be the result of the disruption of a star in the tens of solar masses by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Combined with a lack of detectable star formation in its host galaxy, it could imply the existence of a localised region of star formation around the SMBH. This could provide a new window to probe nuclear star formation and the shape of the initial mass function (IMF) in close proximity to SMBHs out to relatively high redshifts. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_07380 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | AT2019cmw: A highly luminous, cooling featureless TDE candidate from the disruption of a high mass star in an early-type galaxy Wise, Jacob L. Perley, Daniel A. Sarin, Nikhil Matsumoto, Tatsuya Hinds, K-Ryan Yao, Yuhan Sollerman, Jesper Schulze, Steve Bochenek, Aleksandra Coughlin, Michael W. De, Kishalay Dekany, Richard Frederick, Sara Fremling, Christoffer Gezari, Suvi Graham, Matthew J. Ho, Anna Y. Q. Kulkarni, Shrinivas Laher, Russ R. Omand, Conor Johnson, Natalya Sharma, Yashvi Taggart, Kirsty Ward, Charlotte Wold, Avery Yan, Lin High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena We present optical/UV photometric and spectroscopic observations, as well as X-ray and radio follow-up, of the extraordinary event AT2019cmw. With a peak bolometric luminosity of ~$\mathrm{10^{45.6}\,erg\,s^{-1}}$, it is one of the most luminous thermal transients ever discovered. Extensive spectroscopic follow-up post-peak showed only a featureless continuum throughout its evolution. This, combined with its nuclear location, blue colour at peak and lack of prior evidence of an AGN in its host lead us to interpret this event as a `featureless' tidal disruption event (TDE). It displays photometric evolution atypical of most TDEs, cooling from ~30 kK to ~10 kK in the first ~300 days post-peak, with potential implications for future photometric selection of candidate TDEs. No X-ray or radio emission is detected, placing constraints on the presence of on-axis jetted emission or a visible inner-accretion disk. Modelling the optical light curve with existing theoretical prescriptions, we find that AT2019cmw may be the result of the disruption of a star in the tens of solar masses by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Combined with a lack of detectable star formation in its host galaxy, it could imply the existence of a localised region of star formation around the SMBH. This could provide a new window to probe nuclear star formation and the shape of the initial mass function (IMF) in close proximity to SMBHs out to relatively high redshifts. |
| title | AT2019cmw: A highly luminous, cooling featureless TDE candidate from the disruption of a high mass star in an early-type galaxy |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07380 |