TY - JOUR
T1 - OGLE16aaa - a signature of a hungry supermassive black hole
AU - Wyrzykowski, Łukasz
AU - Zieliński, M.
AU - Kostrzewa-Rutkowska, Z.
AU - Hamanowicz, A.
AU - Jonker, P. G.
AU - Arcavi, I.
AU - Guillochon, J.
AU - Brown, P. J.
AU - Kozłowski, S.
AU - Udalski, A.
AU - Szymański, M. K.
AU - Soszyński, I.
AU - Poleski, R.
AU - Pietrukowicz, P.
AU - Skowron, J.
AU - Mróz, P.
AU - Ulaczyk, K.
AU - Pawlak, M.
AU - Rybicki, K. A.
AU - Greiner, J.
AU - Krühler, T.
AU - Bolmer, J.
AU - Smartt, S. J.
AU - Maguire, K.
AU - Smith, K.
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - We present the discovery and first three months of follow-up observations of a currently on-going unusual transient detected by the OGLE-IV survey, located in the centre of a galaxy at redshift z=0.1655.The long rise to absolute magnitude of -20.5 mag, slow decline, very broad He and H spectral features make OGLE16aaa similar to other optical/UV Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs). Weak narrow emission lines in the spectrum and archival photometric observations suggest the host galaxy is a weak-line Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), which has been accreting at higher rate in the past. OGLE16aaa, along with SDSS J0748,seems to form a sub-class of TDEs by weakly or recently active super-massive black holes (SMBHs). This class might bridge the TDEs by quiescent SMBHs and flares observed as "changing-look QSOs", if we interpret the latter as TDEs. If this picture is true, the previously applied requirement for identifying a flare as a TDE that it had to come from an inactive nucleus, could be leading to observational bias in TDE selection, thus affecting TDE-rate estimations.
AB - We present the discovery and first three months of follow-up observations of a currently on-going unusual transient detected by the OGLE-IV survey, located in the centre of a galaxy at redshift z=0.1655.The long rise to absolute magnitude of -20.5 mag, slow decline, very broad He and H spectral features make OGLE16aaa similar to other optical/UV Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs). Weak narrow emission lines in the spectrum and archival photometric observations suggest the host galaxy is a weak-line Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), which has been accreting at higher rate in the past. OGLE16aaa, along with SDSS J0748,seems to form a sub-class of TDEs by weakly or recently active super-massive black holes (SMBHs). This class might bridge the TDEs by quiescent SMBHs and flares observed as "changing-look QSOs", if we interpret the latter as TDEs. If this picture is true, the previously applied requirement for identifying a flare as a TDE that it had to come from an inactive nucleus, could be leading to observational bias in TDE selection, thus affecting TDE-rate estimations.
U2 - 10.1093/mnrasl/slw213
DO - 10.1093/mnrasl/slw213
M3 - Article
SN - 1745-3933
VL - 465
SP - L114-L118
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
IS - 1
ER -