Distinguishing Tidal Disruption Events from Impostors
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11214_2021_829_ReferencePDF.pdf
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Author(s)
Zabludoff, Ann
Arcavi, Iair
La Massa, Stephanie
Perets, Hagai B
Trakhtenbrot, Benny
Zauderer, B. A
Auchettl, Katie
Dai, Jane L
French, K. D
Hung, Tiara
Date Issued
May 5, 2021
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Citation
Space Science Reviews. 2021 May 05;217(4):54
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Abstract
Recent claimed detections of tidal disruption events (TDEs) in multi-wavelength data have opened potential new windows into the evolution and properties of otherwise dormant supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centres of galaxies. At present, there are several dozen TDE candidates, which share some properties and differ in others. The range in properties is broad enough to overlap other transient types, such as active galactic nuclei (AGN) and supernovae (SNe), which can make TDE classification ambiguous. A further complication is that “TDE signatures” have not been uniformly observed to similar sensitivities or even targeted across all candidates. This chapter both reviews those events that are unusual relative to other TDEs, including the possibility of TDEs in pre-existing AGN, and summarises those characteristics thought to best distinguish TDEs from continuously accreting AGN, strongly flaring AGN, SNe, and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), as well as other potential impostors like stellar collisions, “micro-TDEs,” and circumbinary accretion flows. We conclude that multiple observables should be used to classify any one event as a TDE. We also consider the TDE candidate population as a whole, which, for certain host galaxy or SMBH characteristics, is distinguishable statistically from non-TDEs, suggesting that at least some TDE candidates do in fact arise from SMBH-disrupted stars.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00829-4
