The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization
© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We present Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations of the tidal disruption flare AT2018zr/PS18kh reported by Holoien et al. and detected during ZTF commissioning. The ZTF light curve of the tidal disruption event (TDE) samples the...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP PUBLISHING LTD
2019
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT140101082 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80174 |
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| author | Van Velzen, S. Gezari, S. Cenko, S.B. Kara, E. Miller-Jones, James Hung, T. Bright, J. Roth, N. Blagorodnova, N. Huppenkothen, D. Yan, L. Ofek, E. Sollerman, J. Frederick, S. Ward, C. Graham, M.J. Fender, R. Kasliwal, M.M. Canella, C. Stein, R. Giomi, M. Brinnel, V. Santen, J.V. Nordin, J. Bellm, E.C. Dekany, R. Fremling, C. Golkhou, V.Z. Kupfer, T. Kulkarni, S.R. Laher, R.R. Mahabal, A. Masci, F.J. Miller, A.A. Neill, J.D. Riddle, R. Rigault, M. Rusholme, B. Soumagnac, M.T. Tachibana, Y. |
| author_facet | Van Velzen, S. Gezari, S. Cenko, S.B. Kara, E. Miller-Jones, James Hung, T. Bright, J. Roth, N. Blagorodnova, N. Huppenkothen, D. Yan, L. Ofek, E. Sollerman, J. Frederick, S. Ward, C. Graham, M.J. Fender, R. Kasliwal, M.M. Canella, C. Stein, R. Giomi, M. Brinnel, V. Santen, J.V. Nordin, J. Bellm, E.C. Dekany, R. Fremling, C. Golkhou, V.Z. Kupfer, T. Kulkarni, S.R. Laher, R.R. Mahabal, A. Masci, F.J. Miller, A.A. Neill, J.D. Riddle, R. Rigault, M. Rusholme, B. Soumagnac, M.T. Tachibana, Y. |
| author_sort | Van Velzen, S. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | © 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We present Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations of the tidal disruption flare AT2018zr/PS18kh reported by Holoien et al. and detected during ZTF commissioning. The ZTF light curve of the tidal disruption event (TDE) samples the rise-to-peak exceptionally well, with 50 days of g- and r-band detections before the time of maximum light. We also present our multi-wavelength follow-up observations, including the detection of a thermal (kT ≈ 100 eV) X-ray source that is two orders of magnitude fainter than the contemporaneous optical/UV blackbody luminosity, and a stringent upper limit to the radio emission. We use observations of 128 known active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to assess the quality of the ZTF astrometry, finding a median host-flare distance of 0.″2 for genuine nuclear flares. Using ZTF observations of variability from known AGNs and supernovae we show how these sources can be separated from TDEs. A combination of light-curve shape, color, and location in the host galaxy can be used to select a clean TDE sample from multi-band optical surveys such as ZTF or the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:15:08Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-80174 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:15:08Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | IOP PUBLISHING LTD |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-801742020-07-29T09:40:17Z The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization Van Velzen, S. Gezari, S. Cenko, S.B. Kara, E. Miller-Jones, James Hung, T. Bright, J. Roth, N. Blagorodnova, N. Huppenkothen, D. Yan, L. Ofek, E. Sollerman, J. Frederick, S. Ward, C. Graham, M.J. Fender, R. Kasliwal, M.M. Canella, C. Stein, R. Giomi, M. Brinnel, V. Santen, J.V. Nordin, J. Bellm, E.C. Dekany, R. Fremling, C. Golkhou, V.Z. Kupfer, T. Kulkarni, S.R. Laher, R.R. Mahabal, A. Masci, F.J. Miller, A.A. Neill, J.D. Riddle, R. Rigault, M. Rusholme, B. Soumagnac, M.T. Tachibana, Y. Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics accretion, accretion disks galaxies: nuclei STELLAR POPULATION SYNTHESIS BLACK-HOLE RADIO-EMISSION UNCERTAINTIES EVENT STARS I. PROPAGATION CALIBRATION EVOLUTION © 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We present Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations of the tidal disruption flare AT2018zr/PS18kh reported by Holoien et al. and detected during ZTF commissioning. The ZTF light curve of the tidal disruption event (TDE) samples the rise-to-peak exceptionally well, with 50 days of g- and r-band detections before the time of maximum light. We also present our multi-wavelength follow-up observations, including the detection of a thermal (kT ≈ 100 eV) X-ray source that is two orders of magnitude fainter than the contemporaneous optical/UV blackbody luminosity, and a stringent upper limit to the radio emission. We use observations of 128 known active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to assess the quality of the ZTF astrometry, finding a median host-flare distance of 0.″2 for genuine nuclear flares. Using ZTF observations of variability from known AGNs and supernovae we show how these sources can be separated from TDEs. A combination of light-curve shape, color, and location in the host galaxy can be used to select a clean TDE sample from multi-band optical surveys such as ZTF or the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. 2019 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80174 10.3847/1538-4357/aafe0c English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT140101082 IOP PUBLISHING LTD fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics accretion, accretion disks galaxies: nuclei STELLAR POPULATION SYNTHESIS BLACK-HOLE RADIO-EMISSION UNCERTAINTIES EVENT STARS I. PROPAGATION CALIBRATION EVOLUTION Van Velzen, S. Gezari, S. Cenko, S.B. Kara, E. Miller-Jones, James Hung, T. Bright, J. Roth, N. Blagorodnova, N. Huppenkothen, D. Yan, L. Ofek, E. Sollerman, J. Frederick, S. Ward, C. Graham, M.J. Fender, R. Kasliwal, M.M. Canella, C. Stein, R. Giomi, M. Brinnel, V. Santen, J.V. Nordin, J. Bellm, E.C. Dekany, R. Fremling, C. Golkhou, V.Z. Kupfer, T. Kulkarni, S.R. Laher, R.R. Mahabal, A. Masci, F.J. Miller, A.A. Neill, J.D. Riddle, R. Rigault, M. Rusholme, B. Soumagnac, M.T. Tachibana, Y. The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title | The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title_full | The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title_fullStr | The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title_full_unstemmed | The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title_short | The First Tidal Disruption Flare in ZTF: From Photometric Selection to Multi-wavelength Characterization |
| title_sort | first tidal disruption flare in ztf: from photometric selection to multi-wavelength characterization |
| topic | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics accretion, accretion disks galaxies: nuclei STELLAR POPULATION SYNTHESIS BLACK-HOLE RADIO-EMISSION UNCERTAINTIES EVENT STARS I. PROPAGATION CALIBRATION EVOLUTION |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT140101082 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80174 |