Recurring tidal disruption events a decade apart in IRAS F01004-2237

Abstract

We report the discovery of a second optical flare that occurred in September 2021 in IRAS F01004-2237, where the first flare occurred in 2010 has been reported, and present a detailed analysis of multi-band data. The position of the flare coincides with the galaxy centre with a precision of 650 pc. The flare peaks in $\sim 50$ days with an absolute magnitude of $\sim -21$ and fades in two years roughly following $L\propto t^{-5/3}$. It maintains a nearly constant blackbody temperature of $\sim$22,000 K in the late time. Its optical and UV spectra show hydrogen and helium broad emission lines with full width at half maxima of 7,000--21,000 km s${}^{-1}$ and He II/H$\alpha$ ratio of 0.3--2.3. It shows weak X-ray emission relative to UV emission, with X-ray flares lasting for $<2-3$ weeks, during which the spectrum is soft with a power-law index $\Gamma =4.4_{-1.3}^{+1.4}$. These characters are consistent with a tidal disruption event (TDE), ruling out the possibilities of a supernova or an active galactic nuclei flare. With a TDE model, we infer a peak UV luminosity of $3.3\pm 0.2\times 10^{44}$ erg s${}^{-1}$ and an energy budget of $4.5\pm 0.2\times 10^{51}$ erg. The two optical flares separated by $10.3\pm 0.3$ years can be interpreted as repeating partial TDEs, double TDEs, or two independent TDEs. Although no definitive conclusion can be drawn, the partial TDEs interpretation predicts a third flare around 2033, and the independent TDEs interpretation predicts a high TDE rate of $\gtrsim 10^{-2}$ yr${}^{-1}$ in F01004-2237, both of which can be tested by future observations.

22 pages, 16 figures, 9 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

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