Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino

Simeon Reusch; Robert Stein; Marek Kowalski; Sjoert van Velzen; Anna Franckowiak; Cecilia Lunardini; Kohta Murase; Walter Winter; James C A Miller-Jones; Mansi M Kasliwal; Marat Gilfanov; Simone Garrappa; Vaidehi S Paliya; Tomás Ahumada; Shreya Anand; Cristina Barbarino; Eric C Bellm; Valéry Brinnel; Sara Buson; S Bradley Cenko; Michael W Coughlin; Kishalay De; Richard Dekany; Sara Frederick; Avishay Gal-Yam; Suvi Gezari; Marcello Giroletti; Matthew J Graham; Viraj Karambelkar; Shigeo S Kimura; Albert K H Kong; Erik C Kool; Russ R Laher; Pavel Medvedev; Jannis Necker; Jakob Nordin; Daniel A Perley; Mickael Rigault; Ben Rusholme; Steve Schulze; Tassilo Schweyer; Leo P Singer; Jesper Sollerman; Nora Linn Strotjohann; Rashid Sunyaev; Jakob van Santen; Richard Walters; B Theodore Zhang; Erez Zimmerman

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.221101

Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Jun 3;128(22):221101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.221101.

Authors

Simeon Reusch^{1

2}, Robert Stein^{1

2

3}, Marek Kowalski^{1

2}, Sjoert van Velzen⁴, Anna Franckowiak^{1

5}, Cecilia Lunardini⁶, Kohta Murase^{7

8}, Walter Winter¹, James C A Miller-Jones⁹, Mansi M Kasliwal³, Marat Gilfanov^{10

11}, Simone Garrappa^{1

2}, Vaidehi S Paliya¹², Tomás Ahumada¹³, Shreya Anand³, Cristina Barbarino¹⁴, Eric C Bellm¹⁵, Valéry Brinnel², Sara Buson¹⁶, S Bradley Cenko^{17

18}, Michael W Coughlin¹⁹, Kishalay De³, Richard Dekany²⁰, Sara Frederick¹³, Avishay Gal-Yam²¹, Suvi Gezari^{13

22}, Marcello Giroletti²³, Matthew J Graham³, Viraj Karambelkar³, Shigeo S Kimura²⁴, Albert K H Kong²⁵, Erik C Kool¹⁴, Russ R Laher²⁶, Pavel Medvedev¹⁰, Jannis Necker^{1

2}, Jakob Nordin², Daniel A Perley²⁷, Mickael Rigault²⁸, Ben Rusholme²⁶, Steve Schulze²⁹, Tassilo Schweyer¹⁴, Leo P Singer³⁰, Jesper Sollerman¹⁴, Nora Linn Strotjohann²¹, Rashid Sunyaev^{10

11}, Jakob van Santen¹, Richard Walters²⁰, B Theodore Zhang⁸, Erez Zimmerman²¹

Affiliations

¹ Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, Platanenallee 6, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany.
² Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, D-12489 Berlin, Germany.
³ Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 249-17, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
⁴ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Postbus 9513, 2300 RA, Leiden, Netherlands.
⁵ Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
⁶ Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1504, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics; Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
⁸ Center for Gravitational Physics, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
⁹ International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research - Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Washington 6845, Australia.
¹⁰ Space Research Institute (IKI), Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ul. 84/32, Moscow 117997, Russia.
¹¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany.
¹² Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital-263001 Uttarakhand, India.
¹³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁵ DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
¹⁶ Institut für Theoretische Physik and Astrophysik, Universität Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
¹⁷ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
¹⁸ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
¹⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
²⁰ Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 249-17, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
²¹ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 234 Herzl Street 76100 Rehovot, Israel.
²² Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
²³ INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.
²⁴ Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences; Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8574, Japan.
²⁵ Institute of Astronomy, National Tsing Hua University, No. 101 Section 2 Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
²⁶ IPAC, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 249-17, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
²⁷ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, United Kingdom.
²⁸ Univ Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, UMR 5822, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France.
²⁹ The Oskar Klein Centre, Physics Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
³⁰ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.

PMID: 35714251
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.221101

Abstract

The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one high-energy neutrino was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident with another high-energy neutrino. Our observations, including a bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support a TDE origin of this flare. The probability of finding two such bright events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for neutrino production and show that AT2019fdr is capable of producing the observed high-energy neutrino, reinforcing the case for TDEs as neutrino sources.