IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy

N. Blagorodnova; S. Gezari; T. Hung; S. R. Kulkarni; S. B. Cenko; D. R. Pasham; L. Yan; I. Arcavi; S. Ben-Ami; B. D. Bue; T. Cantwell; Y. Cao; A. J. Castro-Tirado; R. Fender; C. Fremling; A. Gal-Yam; A. Y.Q. Ho; A. Horesh; G. Hosseinzadeh; M. M. Kasliwal; A. K.H. Kong; R. R. Laher; G. Leloudas; R. Lunnan; F. J. Masci; K. Mooley; J. D. Neill; P. Nugent; M. Powell; A. F. Valeev; P. M. Vreeswijk; R. Walters; P. Wozniak

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy

N. Blagorodnova^*, S. Gezari, T. Hung, S. R. Kulkarni, S. B. Cenko, D. R. Pasham, L. Yan, I. Arcavi, S. Ben-Ami, B. D. Bue, T. Cantwell, Y. Cao, A. J. Castro-Tirado, R. Fender, C. Fremling, A. Gal-Yam, A. Y.Q. Ho, A. Horesh, G. Hosseinzadeh, M. M. KasliwalA. K.H. Kong, R. R. Laher, G. Leloudas, R. Lunnan, F. J. Masci, K. Mooley, J. D. Neill, P. Nugent, M. Powell, A. F. Valeev, P. M. Vreeswijk, R. Walters, P. Wozniak

^*Corresponding author for this work

Racah Institute of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

105 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present ground-based and Swift observations of iPTF16fnl, a likely tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey at 66.6 Mpc. The light curve of the object peaked at an absolute mag M_g = -17.2. The maximum bolometric luminosity (from optical and UV) was L_p ≃ (1.0 ± 0.15) × 10⁴³erg s^-1, an order of magnitude fainter than any other optical TDE discovered so far. The luminosity in the first 60 days is consistent with an exponential decay, with L ∝ e^-(t-t0)/τ, where t₀ = 57631.0 (MJD) and τ ≃ 15 days. The X-ray shows a marginal detection at L_X = 2.4^1.9 _-1.1 × 10³⁹ erg s^-1 (Swift X-ray Telescope). No radio counterpart was detected down to 3σ, providing upper limits for monochromatic radio luminosities of _νL_ν < 1.7 × 10³⁶ erg s^-1 and _νL_ν < 2.3 × 10³⁷ erg s^-1 (Very Large Array, 6.1 and 22 GHz). The blackbody temperature, obtained from combined Swift UV and optical photometry, shows a constant value of 19,000 K. The transient spectrum at peak is characterized by broad He ii and Hα emission lines, with FWHMs of about 14,000 km s^-1 and 10,000 km s^-1, respectively. He i lines are also detected at λλ 5875 and 6678. The spectrum of the host is dominated by strong Balmer absorption lines, which are consistent with a post-starburst (E+A) galaxy with an age of ∼650 Myr and solar metallicity. The characteristics of iPTF16fnl make it an outlier on both luminosity and decay timescales, as compared to other optically selected TDEs. The discovery of such a faint optical event suggests a higher rate of tidal disruptions, as low-luminosity events may have gone unnoticed in previous searches.

Original language	American English
Article number	46
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	844
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579
State	Published - 20 Jul 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 1545949. We thank the Gemini Fast Turnaround program (PI: T. Hung). S.G. is supported in part by NSF CAREER grant 1454816 and NASA Swift Cycle 12 grant NNX16AN85G. A.Y.Q.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE1144469. A.J.C.T. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry Project AYA 2015-71718-R. Support for I.A. was provided by NASA through the Einstein Fellowship Program, grant PF6-170148. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. We acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. The CSS survey is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant No. NNG05GF22G issued through the Science Mission Directorate Near-Earth Objects Observations Program. The CRTS survey is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants AST-0909182. L.A.N.L. participation in iPTF was funded by the US Department of Energy as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Keywords

accretion, accretion disks
black hole physics
galaxies: nuclei
stars: individual (iPTF16fnl)

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10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

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Blagorodnova, N., Gezari, S., Hung, T., Kulkarni, S. R., Cenko, S. B., Pasham, D. R., Yan, L., Arcavi, I., Ben-Ami, S., Bue, B. D., Cantwell, T., Cao, Y., Castro-Tirado, A. J., Fender, R., Fremling, C., Gal-Yam, A., Ho, A. Y. Q., Horesh, A., Hosseinzadeh, G., ... Wozniak, P. (2017). IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy. Astrophysical Journal, 844(1), Article 46. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

@article{90d727aa9b4a45639bc193e77de77303,

title = "IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy",

abstract = "We present ground-based and Swift observations of iPTF16fnl, a likely tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey at 66.6 Mpc. The light curve of the object peaked at an absolute mag Mg = -17.2. The maximum bolometric luminosity (from optical and UV) was Lp ≃ (1.0 ± 0.15) × 1043erg s-1, an order of magnitude fainter than any other optical TDE discovered so far. The luminosity in the first 60 days is consistent with an exponential decay, with L ∝ e-(t-t0)/τ, where t0 = 57631.0 (MJD) and τ ≃ 15 days. The X-ray shows a marginal detection at LX = 2.41.9 -1.1 × 1039 erg s-1 (Swift X-ray Telescope). No radio counterpart was detected down to 3σ, providing upper limits for monochromatic radio luminosities of νLν < 1.7 × 1036 erg s-1 and νLν < 2.3 × 1037 erg s-1 (Very Large Array, 6.1 and 22 GHz). The blackbody temperature, obtained from combined Swift UV and optical photometry, shows a constant value of 19,000 K. The transient spectrum at peak is characterized by broad He ii and Hα emission lines, with FWHMs of about 14,000 km s-1 and 10,000 km s-1, respectively. He i lines are also detected at λλ 5875 and 6678. The spectrum of the host is dominated by strong Balmer absorption lines, which are consistent with a post-starburst (E+A) galaxy with an age of ∼650 Myr and solar metallicity. The characteristics of iPTF16fnl make it an outlier on both luminosity and decay timescales, as compared to other optically selected TDEs. The discovery of such a faint optical event suggests a higher rate of tidal disruptions, as low-luminosity events may have gone unnoticed in previous searches.",

keywords = "accretion, accretion disks, black hole physics, galaxies: nuclei, stars: individual (iPTF16fnl)",

author = "N. Blagorodnova and S. Gezari and T. Hung and Kulkarni, {S. R.} and Cenko, {S. B.} and Pasham, {D. R.} and L. Yan and I. Arcavi and S. Ben-Ami and Bue, {B. D.} and T. Cantwell and Y. Cao and Castro-Tirado, {A. J.} and R. Fender and C. Fremling and A. Gal-Yam and Ho, {A. Y.Q.} and A. Horesh and G. Hosseinzadeh and Kasliwal, {M. M.} and Kong, {A. K.H.} and Laher, {R. R.} and G. Leloudas and R. Lunnan and Masci, {F. J.} and K. Mooley and Neill, {J. D.} and P. Nugent and M. Powell and Valeev, {A. F.} and Vreeswijk, {P. M.} and R. Walters and P. Wozniak",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 1545949. We thank the Gemini Fast Turnaround program (PI: T. Hung). S.G. is supported in part by NSF CAREER grant 1454816 and NASA Swift Cycle 12 grant NNX16AN85G. A.Y.Q.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE1144469. A.J.C.T. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry Project AYA 2015-71718-R. Support for I.A. was provided by NASA through the Einstein Fellowship Program, grant PF6-170148. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. We acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. The CSS survey is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant No. NNG05GF22G issued through the Science Mission Directorate Near-Earth Objects Observations Program. The CRTS survey is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants AST-0909182. L.A.N.L. participation in iPTF was funded by the US Department of Energy as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

day = "20",

doi = "10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579",

language = "American English",

volume = "844",

journal = "Astrophysical Journal",

issn = "0004-637X",

publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",

number = "1",

}

Blagorodnova, N, Gezari, S, Hung, T, Kulkarni, SR, Cenko, SB, Pasham, DR, Yan, L, Arcavi, I, Ben-Ami, S, Bue, BD, Cantwell, T, Cao, Y, Castro-Tirado, AJ, Fender, R, Fremling, C, Gal-Yam, A, Ho, AYQ, Horesh, A, Hosseinzadeh, G, Kasliwal, MM, Kong, AKH, Laher, RR, Leloudas, G, Lunnan, R, Masci, FJ, Mooley, K, Neill, JD, Nugent, P, Powell, M, Valeev, AF, Vreeswijk, PM, Walters, R & Wozniak, P 2017, 'IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy', Astrophysical Journal, vol. 844, no. 1, 46. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

TY - JOUR

T1 - IPTF16fnl

T2 - A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy

AU - Blagorodnova, N.

AU - Gezari, S.

AU - Hung, T.

AU - Kulkarni, S. R.

AU - Cenko, S. B.

AU - Pasham, D. R.

AU - Yan, L.

AU - Arcavi, I.

AU - Ben-Ami, S.

AU - Bue, B. D.

AU - Cantwell, T.

AU - Cao, Y.

AU - Castro-Tirado, A. J.

AU - Fender, R.

AU - Fremling, C.

AU - Gal-Yam, A.

AU - Ho, A. Y.Q.

AU - Horesh, A.

AU - Hosseinzadeh, G.

AU - Kasliwal, M. M.

AU - Kong, A. K.H.

AU - Laher, R. R.

AU - Leloudas, G.

AU - Lunnan, R.

AU - Masci, F. J.

AU - Mooley, K.

AU - Neill, J. D.

AU - Nugent, P.

AU - Powell, M.

AU - Valeev, A. F.

AU - Vreeswijk, P. M.

AU - Walters, R.

AU - Wozniak, P.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 1545949. We thank the Gemini Fast Turnaround program (PI: T. Hung). S.G. is supported in part by NSF CAREER grant 1454816 and NASA Swift Cycle 12 grant NNX16AN85G. A.Y.Q.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE1144469. A.J.C.T. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry Project AYA 2015-71718-R. Support for I.A. was provided by NASA through the Einstein Fellowship Program, grant PF6-170148. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. G.H. is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1313484. This work makes use of observations from the LCO network. We acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. The CSS survey is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant No. NNG05GF22G issued through the Science Mission Directorate Near-Earth Objects Observations Program. The CRTS survey is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants AST-0909182. L.A.N.L. participation in iPTF was funded by the US Department of Energy as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Publisher Copyright: © 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/7/20

Y1 - 2017/7/20

N2 - We present ground-based and Swift observations of iPTF16fnl, a likely tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey at 66.6 Mpc. The light curve of the object peaked at an absolute mag Mg = -17.2. The maximum bolometric luminosity (from optical and UV) was Lp ≃ (1.0 ± 0.15) × 1043erg s-1, an order of magnitude fainter than any other optical TDE discovered so far. The luminosity in the first 60 days is consistent with an exponential decay, with L ∝ e-(t-t0)/τ, where t0 = 57631.0 (MJD) and τ ≃ 15 days. The X-ray shows a marginal detection at LX = 2.41.9 -1.1 × 1039 erg s-1 (Swift X-ray Telescope). No radio counterpart was detected down to 3σ, providing upper limits for monochromatic radio luminosities of νLν < 1.7 × 1036 erg s-1 and νLν < 2.3 × 1037 erg s-1 (Very Large Array, 6.1 and 22 GHz). The blackbody temperature, obtained from combined Swift UV and optical photometry, shows a constant value of 19,000 K. The transient spectrum at peak is characterized by broad He ii and Hα emission lines, with FWHMs of about 14,000 km s-1 and 10,000 km s-1, respectively. He i lines are also detected at λλ 5875 and 6678. The spectrum of the host is dominated by strong Balmer absorption lines, which are consistent with a post-starburst (E+A) galaxy with an age of ∼650 Myr and solar metallicity. The characteristics of iPTF16fnl make it an outlier on both luminosity and decay timescales, as compared to other optically selected TDEs. The discovery of such a faint optical event suggests a higher rate of tidal disruptions, as low-luminosity events may have gone unnoticed in previous searches.

AB - We present ground-based and Swift observations of iPTF16fnl, a likely tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey at 66.6 Mpc. The light curve of the object peaked at an absolute mag Mg = -17.2. The maximum bolometric luminosity (from optical and UV) was Lp ≃ (1.0 ± 0.15) × 1043erg s-1, an order of magnitude fainter than any other optical TDE discovered so far. The luminosity in the first 60 days is consistent with an exponential decay, with L ∝ e-(t-t0)/τ, where t0 = 57631.0 (MJD) and τ ≃ 15 days. The X-ray shows a marginal detection at LX = 2.41.9 -1.1 × 1039 erg s-1 (Swift X-ray Telescope). No radio counterpart was detected down to 3σ, providing upper limits for monochromatic radio luminosities of νLν < 1.7 × 1036 erg s-1 and νLν < 2.3 × 1037 erg s-1 (Very Large Array, 6.1 and 22 GHz). The blackbody temperature, obtained from combined Swift UV and optical photometry, shows a constant value of 19,000 K. The transient spectrum at peak is characterized by broad He ii and Hα emission lines, with FWHMs of about 14,000 km s-1 and 10,000 km s-1, respectively. He i lines are also detected at λλ 5875 and 6678. The spectrum of the host is dominated by strong Balmer absorption lines, which are consistent with a post-starburst (E+A) galaxy with an age of ∼650 Myr and solar metallicity. The characteristics of iPTF16fnl make it an outlier on both luminosity and decay timescales, as compared to other optically selected TDEs. The discovery of such a faint optical event suggests a higher rate of tidal disruptions, as low-luminosity events may have gone unnoticed in previous searches.

KW - accretion, accretion disks

KW - black hole physics

KW - galaxies: nuclei

KW - stars: individual (iPTF16fnl)

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026406715&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aa7579

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85026406715

SN - 0004-637X

VL - 844

JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

IS - 1

M1 - 46

ER -

IPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy

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Keywords

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