Dr Chang Liu

Abstract:

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) that are spatially offset from the nuclei of their host galaxies offer a new probe of massive black hole (MBH) wanderers, binaries, triples, and recoiling MBHs. Here we present AT2024tvd, the first off-nuclear TDE identified through optical sky surveys. High-resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope shows that AT2024tvd is 0 .″ 914 ± 0 .″ 010 offset from the apparent center of its host galaxy, corresponding to a projected distance of 0.808 ± 0.009 kpc at z = 0.045. Chandra and Very Large Array observations support the same conclusion for the TDE’s X-ray and radio emission. AT2024tvd exhibits typical properties of nuclear TDEs, including a persistent hot UV/optical component that peaks at Lbb ∼ 6 × 1043 erg s−1, broad hydrogen lines in its optical spectra, and delayed brightening of luminous (LX,peak ∼ 3 × 1043 erg s−1), highly variable soft X-ray emission. The MBH mass of AT2024tvd is 106±1 M⊙, at least 10 times lower than its host galaxy’s central black hole mass (≳108 M⊙). The MBH in AT2024tvd has two possible origins: a wandering MBH from the lower-mass galaxy in a minor merger during the dynamical friction phase or a recoiling MBH ejected by triple interactions. Combining AT2024tvd with two previously known off-nuclear TDEs discovered in X-rays (3XMM J2150 and EP240222a), which likely involve intermediate-mass black holes in satellite galaxies, we find that the parent galaxies of all three events are very massive (∼1010.9 M⊙). This result aligns with expectations from cosmological simulations that the number of offset MBHs scales linearly with the host halo mass.

Abstract:

We present observations of the Type IIP supernova (SN) SN 2024jlf, including spectroscopy beginning just 0.7 days (∼17 hr) after first light. Rapid follow-up was enabled by the new BTSbot-nearby program, which involves autonomously triggering target-of-opportunity requests for new transients in Zwicky Transient Facility data that are coincident with nearby (D < 60 Mpc) galaxies and identified by the BTSbot machine learning model. Early photometry and nondetections shortly prior to first light show that SN 2024jlf initially brightened by >4 mag day−1, quicker than ∼90% of Type II SNe. Early spectra reveal weak flash ionization features: narrow, short-lived (1.3 < τ[days] < 1.8) emission lines of Hα, He ii, and C iv. Assuming a wind velocity of vw = 50 km s−1, these properties indicate that the red supergiant progenitor exhibited enhanced mass loss in the last year before explosion. We constrain the mass-loss rate to 10−4