• DOI:10.1126/science.1207150
• Corpus ID: 31819412

A Possible Relativistic Jetted Outburst from a Massive Black Hole Fed by a Tidally Disrupted Star

@article{Bloom2011APR,
  title={A Possible Relativistic Jetted Outburst from a Massive Black Hole Fed by a Tidally Disrupted Star},
  author={Joshua S. Bloom and Dimitrios Giannios and Brian D. Metzger and S. Bradley Cenko and Daniel A. Perley and Nathaniel R. Butler and Nial R. Tanvir and Andrew J. Levan and Paul T. O' Brien and Linda E. Strubbe and Fabio De Colle and Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and William H. Lee and S Nayakshin and Eliot Quataert and Andrew King and Antonino Cucchiara and James Guillochon and Geoffrey C. Bower and Andrew S. Fruchter and Adam N. Morgan and Alexander J. van der Horst},
  journal={Science},
  year={2011},
  volume={333},
  pages={203 - 206}
}

• J. Bloom, D. Giannios, +19 authors A. J. van der Horst
• Published 16 April 2011
• Physics
• Science

A recent bright emission observed by the Swift satellite is due to the sudden accretion of a star onto a massive black hole. Gas accretion onto some massive black holes (MBHs) at the centers of galaxies actively powers luminous emission, but most MBHs are considered dormant. Occasionally, a star passing too near an MBH is torn apart by gravitational forces, leading to a bright tidal disruption flare (TDF). Although the high-energy transient Sw 1644+57 initially displayed none of the theoretically anticipated (nor previously observed) TDF characteristics, we show that observations suggest a sudden accretion event onto a central MBH of mass about 106 to 107 solar masses. There is evidence for a mildly relativistic outflow, jet collimation, and a spectrum characterized by synchrotron and inverse Compton processes; this leads to a natural analogy of Sw 1644+57 to a temporary smaller-scale blazar.