The First Radio-Bright Off-Nuclear TDE 2024tvd Reveals the Fastest-Evolving Double-Peaked Radio Emission

Abstract

We present the first multi-epoch broadband radio and millimeter monitoring of an off-nuclear TDE using the VLA, ALMA, ATA, AMI-LA, and the SMA. The off-nuclear TDE 2024tvd exhibits double-peaked radio light curves and the fastest evolving radio emission observed from a TDE to date. With respect to the optical discovery date, the first radio flare rises faster than $F_{\hat{\mathrm{I}}½}\sim t^9$ at $\hat{I}”t=88-131$ days, and then decays as fast as $F_{\hat{\mathrm{I}}½}\sim t^{-6}$. The emergence of a second radio flare is observed at $\hat{I}”t\approx 194$ days with an initial fast rise of $F_{\hat{\mathrm{I}}½}\sim t^{18}$, and an optically thin decline of $F_{\hat{\mathrm{I}}½}\sim t^{-12}$. We interpret these observations in the context of a self-absorbed and free-free absorbed synchrotron spectrum, while accounting for both synchrotron and external inverse-Compton cooling. We find that a single prompt outflow cannot easily explain these observations and it is likely that either there is only one outflow that was launched at $\hat{I}”t\sim 80$ days, or two distinct outflows, with the second launched at $\hat{I}”t\sim 170-190$ days. The nature of these outflows, whether sub-, mildly-, or ultra-relativistic, is still unclear, and we explore these different scenarios. Finally, we find a temporal coincidence between the launch time of the first radio-emitting outflow and the onset of a power-law component in the X-ray spectrum, attributed to inverse-Compton scattering of thermal photons.

29 pages, 10 figures, submitted to ApJL