The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?

The ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate RX J133157.6-324319.7 (J1331), was detected in 1993 as a bright (0.2-2 keV flux of $(1.0 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-12}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$), ultra-soft ($kT=0.11 \pm 0.03$ keV) X-ray flare from a quiescent galaxy ($z=0.05189$). During its fift...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Malyali, A., Liu, Z., Rau, A., Grotova, I., Merloni, A., Goodwin, Adelle, Anderson, Gemma, Miller-Jones, James, Kawka, A., Arcodia, R., Buchner, J., Nandra, K., Homan, D., Krumpe, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad022
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97226
_version_ 1848766242231418880
author Malyali, A.
Liu, Z.
Rau, A.
Grotova, I.
Merloni, A.
Goodwin, Adelle
Anderson, Gemma
Miller-Jones, James
Kawka, A.
Arcodia, R.
Buchner, J.
Nandra, K.
Homan, D.
Krumpe, M.
author_facet Malyali, A.
Liu, Z.
Rau, A.
Grotova, I.
Merloni, A.
Goodwin, Adelle
Anderson, Gemma
Miller-Jones, James
Kawka, A.
Arcodia, R.
Buchner, J.
Nandra, K.
Homan, D.
Krumpe, M.
author_sort Malyali, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate RX J133157.6-324319.7 (J1331), was detected in 1993 as a bright (0.2-2 keV flux of $(1.0 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-12}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$), ultra-soft ($kT=0.11 \pm 0.03$ keV) X-ray flare from a quiescent galaxy ($z=0.05189$). During its fifth All-Sky survey (eRASS5) in 2022, SRG/eROSITA detected the repeated flaring of J1331, where it had rebrightened to an observed 0.2-2 keV flux of $(6.0 \pm 0.7) \times 10^{-13}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, with spectral properties ($kT=0.115 \pm 0.007$ keV) consistent with the ROSAT-observed flare $\sim$30 years earlier. In this work, we report on X-ray, UV, optical, and radio observations of this system. During a pointed XMM observation $\sim$17 days after the eRASS5 detection, J1331 was not detected in the 0.2-2 keV band, constraining the 0.2-2 keV flux to have decayed by a factor of $\gtrsim$40 over this period. Given the extremely low probability ($\sim5\times 10^{-6}$) of observing two independent full TDEs from the same galaxy over a 30 year period, we consider the variability seen in J1331 to be likely caused by two partial TDEs involving a star on an elliptical orbit around a black hole. J1331-like flares show faster rise and decay timescales ($\mathcal{O}(\mathrm{days})$) compared to standard TDE candidates, with neglible ongoing accretion at late times post-disruption between outbursts.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:48:02Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-97226
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:48:02Z
publishDate 2023
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-972262025-02-27T14:08:19Z The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy? Malyali, A. Liu, Z. Rau, A. Grotova, I. Merloni, A. Goodwin, Adelle Anderson, Gemma Miller-Jones, James Kawka, A. Arcodia, R. Buchner, J. Nandra, K. Homan, D. Krumpe, M. astro-ph.HE astro-ph.HE The ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate RX J133157.6-324319.7 (J1331), was detected in 1993 as a bright (0.2-2 keV flux of $(1.0 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-12}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$), ultra-soft ($kT=0.11 \pm 0.03$ keV) X-ray flare from a quiescent galaxy ($z=0.05189$). During its fifth All-Sky survey (eRASS5) in 2022, SRG/eROSITA detected the repeated flaring of J1331, where it had rebrightened to an observed 0.2-2 keV flux of $(6.0 \pm 0.7) \times 10^{-13}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, with spectral properties ($kT=0.115 \pm 0.007$ keV) consistent with the ROSAT-observed flare $\sim$30 years earlier. In this work, we report on X-ray, UV, optical, and radio observations of this system. During a pointed XMM observation $\sim$17 days after the eRASS5 detection, J1331 was not detected in the 0.2-2 keV band, constraining the 0.2-2 keV flux to have decayed by a factor of $\gtrsim$40 over this period. Given the extremely low probability ($\sim5\times 10^{-6}$) of observing two independent full TDEs from the same galaxy over a 30 year period, we consider the variability seen in J1331 to be likely caused by two partial TDEs involving a star on an elliptical orbit around a black hole. J1331-like flares show faster rise and decay timescales ($\mathcal{O}(\mathrm{days})$) compared to standard TDE candidates, with neglible ongoing accretion at late times post-disruption between outbursts. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97226 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad022 unknown
spellingShingle astro-ph.HE
astro-ph.HE
Malyali, A.
Liu, Z.
Rau, A.
Grotova, I.
Merloni, A.
Goodwin, Adelle
Anderson, Gemma
Miller-Jones, James
Kawka, A.
Arcodia, R.
Buchner, J.
Nandra, K.
Homan, D.
Krumpe, M.
The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title_full The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title_fullStr The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title_full_unstemmed The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title_short The rebrightening of a ROSAT-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
title_sort rebrightening of a rosat-selected tidal disruption event: repeated weak partial disruption flares from a quiescent galaxy?
topic astro-ph.HE
astro-ph.HE
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad022
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97226