Light-curve Evolution of the Nearest Tidal Disruption Event: A Late-time, Radio-only Flare

Abstract

Abstract Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star passes close enough to a galaxy’s supermassive black hole to be disrupted by tidal forces. We discuss new observations of IGRJ12580+0134, a TDE observed in NGC 4845 (d = 17 Mpc) in 2010 November, with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA 9 9 The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. ). We also discuss a reanalysis of 2010–2011 Swift and XMM-Newton observations, as well as new, late-time Swift observations. Our JVLA observations show a decay of the nuclear radio flux until 2015, when a plateau was seen, and then a significant (factor ∼3) radio flare during 2016. The 2016 radio flare was also accompanied by radio spectral changes, but was not seen in the X-rays. We model the flare as resulting from the interaction of the nuclear jet with a cloud in the interstellar medium. This is distinct from late-time X-ray flares in a few other TDEs where changes in the accretion state and/or a fallback event were suggested, neither of which appears possible in this case. Our reanalysis of the Swift and XMM-Newton data from 2011 shows significant evidence for thermal emission from a disk, as well as a very soft power law. This, in addition to the extreme X-ray flux increase seen in 2010 (a factor of >100) bolsters the identification of IGRJ12580+0134 as a TDE, not an unusual active galactic nucleus variability event.