The 6 year radio lightcurve of the tidal disruption event AT2019azh

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Burn, Matthew, Goodwin, Adelle J., Anderson, Gemma E., Miller-Jones, James C. A., Cendes, Yvette, Christy, Collin T., Lu, Wenbin, van Velzen, Sjoert
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Burn, Matthew
Goodwin, Adelle J.
Anderson, Gemma E.
Miller-Jones, James C. A.
Cendes, Yvette
Christy, Collin T.
Lu, Wenbin
van Velzen, Sjoert
author_facet Burn, Matthew
Goodwin, Adelle J.
Anderson, Gemma E.
Miller-Jones, James C. A.
Cendes, Yvette
Christy, Collin T.
Lu, Wenbin
van Velzen, Sjoert
contents Analysis of radio emission from tidal disruption events allows for detailed constraints on the properties of ejected outflows and the host environment surrounding the black hole. However, the late-time radio behaviour of tidal disruption events is not well-studied due to a lack of observations. In this work we present long-term radio monitoring observations of the tidal disruption event AT2019azh spanning 1167-2159 days post disruption. We fit a physically motivated synchrotron model to the radio spectra at each epoch, and model the decay of the light curve under the assumption that the outflow transitions into the non-relativistic Sedov-Taylor regime at late times. Through this modelling we obtain strong constraints on the density profile of the circumnuclear medium, finding an unusually flat density profile proportional to $r^{0.24^{+0.11}_{-0.15}}$. Overall we find that unlike some tidal disruption events, AT2019azh does not show late time re-brightening up to 6 years post-disruption. The Sedov-Taylor light curve decay model provides a good fit to the data, motivating the assumption that the outflow was produced by a single ejection of material close to the time of stellar disruption. From forward modelling the evolution of the radio light curve decay we predict that the radio afterglow from AT2019azh should be detectable for decades at its current rate of evolution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_17525
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The 6 year radio lightcurve of the tidal disruption event AT2019azh
Burn, Matthew
Goodwin, Adelle J.
Anderson, Gemma E.
Miller-Jones, James C. A.
Cendes, Yvette
Christy, Collin T.
Lu, Wenbin
van Velzen, Sjoert
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Analysis of radio emission from tidal disruption events allows for detailed constraints on the properties of ejected outflows and the host environment surrounding the black hole. However, the late-time radio behaviour of tidal disruption events is not well-studied due to a lack of observations. In this work we present long-term radio monitoring observations of the tidal disruption event AT2019azh spanning 1167-2159 days post disruption. We fit a physically motivated synchrotron model to the radio spectra at each epoch, and model the decay of the light curve under the assumption that the outflow transitions into the non-relativistic Sedov-Taylor regime at late times. Through this modelling we obtain strong constraints on the density profile of the circumnuclear medium, finding an unusually flat density profile proportional to $r^{0.24^{+0.11}_{-0.15}}$. Overall we find that unlike some tidal disruption events, AT2019azh does not show late time re-brightening up to 6 years post-disruption. The Sedov-Taylor light curve decay model provides a good fit to the data, motivating the assumption that the outflow was produced by a single ejection of material close to the time of stellar disruption. From forward modelling the evolution of the radio light curve decay we predict that the radio afterglow from AT2019azh should be detectable for decades at its current rate of evolution.
title The 6 year radio lightcurve of the tidal disruption event AT2019azh
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17525