Relativistic jets from tidal disruption events

The tidal disruption event (TDE) of a star by a supermassive black hole provides us with a rare glimpse of these otherwise dormant supermassive black holes in galactic centers. It has long been predicted that the disruption will be accompanied by a thermal "flare", powered by the accretion of bound stellar debris. A dozen of such TDE candidates have been discovered the past ~15 years. The year 2011 marked a new era of TDE theory and observations when it became clear that a substantial fraction of the power released during a TDE can be channeled into an ultra-relativistic outflow. The X-ray transient Sw 1644 and its more distant twin, Swift J2058, provide strong support to the presence of powerful relativistic jets during tidal disruption events. I will discuss the rich behavior of Sw 1644 in the radio and X-rays and the valuable lessons it can teach us in terms of jet physcis, super-Eddington accretion as well as for the circum-nuclear medium in quiescent nuclei.

Speaker: Dimitrios Giannios, Purdue