The superluminous transient ASASSN-15lh as a tidal disruption event from a Kerr black hole

Leloudas, G., Fraser, M., Stone, N. C., van Velzen, S., Jonker, P. G., Arcavi, I., Fremling, C., Maund, J. R., Smartt, S. J., Krìhler, T., Miller-Jones, J. C. A., Vreeswijk, P. M., Gal-Yam, A., Mazzali, P. A., De Cia, A., Howell, D. A., Inserra, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-4409, Patat, F., de Ugarte Postigo, A., Yaron, O., Ashall, C., Bar, I., Campbell, H., Chen, T.-W., Childress, M., Elias-Rosa, N., Harmanen, J., Hosseinzadeh, G., Johansson, J., Kangas, T., Kankare, E., Kim, S., Kuncarayakti, H., Lyman, J., Magee, M. R., Maguire, K., Malesani, D., Mattila, S., McCully, C. V., Nicholl, M., Prentice, S., Romero-Cañizales, C., Schulze, S., Smith, K. W., Sollerman, J., Sullivan, M., Tucker, B. E., Valenti, S., Wheeler, J. C. and Young, D. R. 2016. The superluminous transient ASASSN-15lh as a tidal disruption event from a Kerr black hole. Nature Astronomy 1 (1) , 0002. 10.1038/s41550-016-0002

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Abstract

When a star passes within the tidal radius of a supermassive black hole, it will be torn apart1. For a star with the mass of the Sun (M ⊙) and a non-spinning black hole with a mass <108 M ⊙, the tidal radius lies outside the black hole event horizon2 and the disruption results in a luminous flare3–6. Here we report observations over a period of ten months of a transient, hitherto interpreted7 as a superluminous supernova8. Our data show that the transient rebrightened substantially in the ultraviolet and that the spectrum went through three different spectroscopic phases without ever becoming nebular. Our observations are more consistent with a tidal disruption event than a superluminous supernova because of the temperature evolution6, the presence of highly ionized CNO gas in the line of sight9 and our improved localization of the transient in the nucleus of a passive galaxy, where the presence of massive stars is highly unlikely10,11. While the supermassive black hole has a mass >108 M ⊙ 12,13, a star with the same mass as the Sun could be disrupted outside the event horizon if the black hole were spinning rapidly14. The rapid spin and high black hole mass can explain the high luminosity of this event.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:	2397-3366
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 January 2019
Date of Acceptance:	27 September 2016
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2024 04:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/118832

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