A model for the multiwavelength radiation from tidal disruption event Swift J1644+57

Abstract

Gamma-ray observations of a stellar tidal disruption event (TDE) detected by the Swift satellite and follow up observations in radio, mm, infrared and x-ray bands have provided a rich data set to study accretion onto massive blackholes, production of relativistic jets and their interaction with the surrounding medium. The radio and x-ray data for TDE Swift J1644+57 provide a conflicting picture regarding the energy in relativistic jet produced in this event: x-ray data suggest jet energy declining with time as t^{-5/3} whereas the nearly flat lightcurves in radio and mm bands lasting for about 100 days have been interpreted as evidence for the total energy output increasing with time. We show in this work that flat lightcurves do not require addition of energy to decelerating external shock (which produced radio and mm emission via synchrotron process), instead the flat behavior is due to inverse-Compton cooling of electrons by x-ray photons streaming through the external shock; the higher x-ray flux at earlier times cools electrons more rapidly thereby reducing the emergent synchrotron flux, and this effect weakens as the x-ray flux declines with time.

11 pages, 5 figures, expanded discussion on Sec. 4, MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (7)

• An ultraviolet-optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium-rich stellar core
• Klein-Nishina Effects on Optically Thin Synchrotron and Synchrotron Self-Compton Spectrum
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• The Dynamics and Afterglow Radiation of Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Constant Density Medium
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• Radius constraints and minimal equipartition energy of relativistically moving synchrotron sources
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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• A radio jet from the optical and x-ray bright stellar tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li
• Radio Monitoring of the Tidal Disruption Event Swift J164449.3+573451. III. Late-time Jet Energetics and a Deviation from Equipartition
• Infrared emission from tidal disruption events --- probing the pc-scale dust content around galactic nuclei
• AT2019azh: an unusually long-lived, radio-bright thermal tidal disruption event
• The radio afterglow of Swift J1644+57 reveals a powerful jet with fast core and slow sheath
• The influence of circumnuclear environment on the radio emission from TDE jets
• Jets from Tidal Disruption Events
• Quasi-Periodic Variations in X-ray Emission and Long-Term Radio Observations: Evidence for a Two-Component Jet in Sw J1644+57
• The Definitive X-ray Light Curve of Swift J164449.3+573451
• Delayed Energy Injection Model For Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• Swift J1644+57 as an off-axis Jet
• Swift J1644+57: an Ideal Test Bed of Radiation Mechanisms in a Relativistic Super-Eddington Jet
• A two-component jet model for the tidal disruption event Swift J164449.3+573451
• Radiative interaction between the relativistic jet and optically thick envelope in tidal disruption events
• Cosmic-Ray Constraints on the Flux of Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Event KM3-230213A
• Two-dimensional Inflow-Wind Solution of Hot Accretion Flow. I. Hydrodynamics
• Radiative Emission Mechanisms of Tidal Disruption Events