Quasi-perpendicular shock acceleration and TDE radio flares

Abstract

Delayed radio flares of optical tidal disruption events (TDEs) indicate the existence of non-relativistic outflows accompanying TDEs. The interaction of TDE outflows with the surrounding circumnuclear medium creates quasi-perpendicular shocks in the presence of toroidal magnetic fields. Because of the large shock obliquity and large outflow velocity, we find that the shock acceleration induced by TDE outflows generally leads to a steep particle energy spectrum, with the power-law index significantly larger than the "universal" index for a parallel shock. The measured synchrotron spectral indices of recently detected TDE radio flares are consistent with our theoretical expectation. It suggests that the particle acceleration at quasi-perpendicular shocks can be the general acceleration mechanism accounting for the delayed radio emission of TDEs.

8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Turbulent reconnection acceleration
• The radio detection and accretion properties of the peculiar nuclear transient AT 2019avd
• Radio emission from tidal disruption events produced by the collision between super-Eddington outflows and the circumnuclear medium
• Parallel and Perpendicular Alignments of Velocity Gradient and Magnetic Field observed in the Molecular Clouds L1478 and L1482