JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample
Mid-infrared (MIR) emission from tidal disruption events (TDEs) is a powerful probe of the circumnuclear environment around dormant supermassive black holes. This emission arises from the reprocessing of intrinsic emission into thermal MIR emission by circumnuclear dust. While the majority of optica...
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2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade153 |
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| author | Megan Masterson Kishalay De Christos Panagiotou Erin Kara Wenbin Lu Anna-Christina Eilers Muryel Guolo Armin Rest Claudio Ricci Sjoert van Velzen |
| author_facet | Megan Masterson Kishalay De Christos Panagiotou Erin Kara Wenbin Lu Anna-Christina Eilers Muryel Guolo Armin Rest Claudio Ricci Sjoert van Velzen |
| author_sort | Megan Masterson |
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| description | Mid-infrared (MIR) emission from tidal disruption events (TDEs) is a powerful probe of the circumnuclear environment around dormant supermassive black holes. This emission arises from the reprocessing of intrinsic emission into thermal MIR emission by circumnuclear dust. While the majority of optical- and X-ray-selected TDEs show only weak dust echoes consistent with primarily unobscured sight lines, there have been growing efforts aimed at finding TDEs in obscured environments using MIR selection methods. In this work, we present the first JWST observations of four MIR-selected TDEs with the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution Spectrometer (MRS). Two of these sources show flares in other wavelength bands (one in optical, one in X-ray), while the other two are MIR-only transients. None of these TDEs showed pre-outburst nuclear activity, but all of the MIRI/MRS observations reveal emission lines associated with highly ionized gas in the nucleus, implying ionization from TDE accretion. Additionally, all four sources show silicate emission features around 10 and 18 μ m that are much stronger than the features seen in active galactic nuclei. We suggest that the emitting dust is optically thin to its own emission and show that the MIR spectrum is consistent with emission from optically thin dust in the nucleus. All four sources show an excess at short wavelengths ( λ < 8 μ m), which could arise from a late-time plateau in the intrinsic flare, akin to what is seen in late-time UV observations of unobscured TDEs, although self-consistent dust modeling is required to fully assess the strength of this late-time plateau. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-8205 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-1675d0c9ebb645d4b4755b47dd7d6fa02025-08-20T03:32:20ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052025-01-019882L4810.3847/2041-8213/ade153JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected SampleMegan Masterson0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4127-0739Kishalay De1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8989-0542Christos Panagiotou2https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9034-6261Erin Kara3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0172-0854Wenbin Lu4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1568-7461Anna-Christina Eilers5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2895-6218Muryel Guolo6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5063-0751Armin Rest7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4410-5387Claudio Ricci8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5231-2645Sjoert van Velzen9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3859-8074MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; mmasters@mit.eduDepartment of Astronomy and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University , 550 W 120th St. MC 5246, New York, NY 10027, USA; Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USAMIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; mmasters@mit.eduMIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; mmasters@mit.eduDepartments of Astronomy and Theoretical Astrophysics Center, University of California at Berkeley , Berkeley, CA 94720, USAMIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; mmasters@mit.eduDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USASpace Telescope Science Institute , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Physics and Astronomy Department, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USANúcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales , Av. Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago, Chile; Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaLeiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The NetherlandsMid-infrared (MIR) emission from tidal disruption events (TDEs) is a powerful probe of the circumnuclear environment around dormant supermassive black holes. This emission arises from the reprocessing of intrinsic emission into thermal MIR emission by circumnuclear dust. While the majority of optical- and X-ray-selected TDEs show only weak dust echoes consistent with primarily unobscured sight lines, there have been growing efforts aimed at finding TDEs in obscured environments using MIR selection methods. In this work, we present the first JWST observations of four MIR-selected TDEs with the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution Spectrometer (MRS). Two of these sources show flares in other wavelength bands (one in optical, one in X-ray), while the other two are MIR-only transients. None of these TDEs showed pre-outburst nuclear activity, but all of the MIRI/MRS observations reveal emission lines associated with highly ionized gas in the nucleus, implying ionization from TDE accretion. Additionally, all four sources show silicate emission features around 10 and 18 μ m that are much stronger than the features seen in active galactic nuclei. We suggest that the emitting dust is optically thin to its own emission and show that the MIR spectrum is consistent with emission from optically thin dust in the nucleus. All four sources show an excess at short wavelengths ( λ < 8 μ m), which could arise from a late-time plateau in the intrinsic flare, akin to what is seen in late-time UV observations of unobscured TDEs, although self-consistent dust modeling is required to fully assess the strength of this late-time plateau.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade153High energy astrophysicsInfrared astronomySupermassive black holesTransient sourcesInfrared spectroscopy |
| spellingShingle | Megan Masterson Kishalay De Christos Panagiotou Erin Kara Wenbin Lu Anna-Christina Eilers Muryel Guolo Armin Rest Claudio Ricci Sjoert van Velzen JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample The Astrophysical Journal Letters High energy astrophysics Infrared astronomy Supermassive black holes Transient sources Infrared spectroscopy |
| title | JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample |
| title_full | JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample |
| title_fullStr | JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample |
| title_full_unstemmed | JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample |
| title_short | JWST’s First View of Tidal Disruption Events: Compact, Accretion-driven Emission Lines and Strong Silicate Emission in an Infrared-selected Sample |
| title_sort | jwst s first view of tidal disruption events compact accretion driven emission lines and strong silicate emission in an infrared selected sample |
| topic | High energy astrophysics Infrared astronomy Supermassive black holes Transient sources Infrared spectroscopy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade153 |
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