Tidal Disruption Flares as the Source of Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

The optical spectral energy distributions of two tidal disruption flares identified by van Velzen et al. (2011) in archival SDSS data, are found to be well-fit by a thin-accretion-disk model. Furthermore, the inferred Supermassive Black Hole mass values agree well with the SMBH masses estimated from the host galaxy properties. Integrating the model SEDs to include shorter wavelength contributions provides an estimate of the bolometric luminosities of the accretion disks. The resultant bolometric luminosities are well in excess of the minimum required for accelerating UHECR protons. In combination with the recent observational estimate of the TDF rate (van Velzen and Farrar, these Proceedings), the results presented here strengthen the case that transient jets formed in tidal disruption events may be responsible for accelerating all or most UHECRs.

4 pages, 4 figures, invited talk at the ESA Workshop on TIdal Disruption Events and AGN Outbursts, Madrid, June 25-27, 2012

References in corpus (4)

• The Birth of a Relativistic Outflow in the Unusual γ-ray Transient Swift J164449.3+573451
• Stellar disruption by a supermassive black hole: is the light curve really proportional to $t^{-5/3}$?
• Giant AGN Flares and Cosmic Ray Bursts
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• High Energy Neutrinos from the Tidal Disruption of Stars
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• Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos from Tidal Disruptions by Massive Black Holes
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• POEMMA's Target of Opportunity Sensitivity to Cosmic Neutrino Transient Sources
• The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON): Performance and Science Program
• Multiwavelength follow-up of a rare IceCube neutrino multiplet
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• Espresso Acceleration of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays up to the Hillas Limit in Relativistic MHD Jets
• Aspects of astrophysical particle production and beyond the Standard Model phenomenology