1502.07835v1.pdf (369.46 kB)
"Spoon-feeding" an AGN
conference contribution
posted on 2020-05-26, 15:45 authored by D Mainetti, S Campana, M Colpi, G Lodato, P D'Avanzo, PA Evans, A MorettiTidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star, passing too close to a massive black hole, is ripped apart by tidal forces. A less dramatic event occurs if the star orbits just outside the tidal radius, resulting in a mild stripping of mass. Thus, if a star orbits a central black hole on one of these bound eccentric orbits, weaker outbursts will occur recurring every orbital period. Thanks to five Swift observations, we observed a recent flare from the close by (92 Mpc) galaxy IC 3599, where a possible TDE was already observed in December 1990 during the Rosat All-Sky Survey. By light curve modeling and spectral fitting, we account for all these events as the non-disruptive tidal stripping of a single star into a 9.5 yr highly eccentric bound orbit. This is the first example of periodic partial tidal disruptions, possibly spoon-feeding the central black hole.
History
Citation
Proceedings of Science, 2014Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and AstronomySource
Swift: 10 Years of Discovery, 2-5 December 2014 La Sapienza University, Rome, ItalyVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)