Statistics
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21930803m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #308.03
Statistics
Scientific paper
When a star is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole, the accreting debris produces a luminous and possibly super-Eddington flare that can last for months or even years. The rate at which these flares occur is critical to models of galaxy formation and evolution, as it is sensitive to both the black hole mass function and the stellar populations of galactic nuclei. But the extreme rarity of these events (10-4-10-5 galaxy-1 year-1) makes constraining the rate difficult, and requires that additional tidal flares be identified across a variety of selection methods to better characterize their properties.
Rich galaxy clusters provide excellent opportunities for surveys of rare transients with limited fields of view, such as are typical for focusing X-ray observatories. They also allow rate calculation from a uniform population of galaxies. We present results from an archival survey of rich galaxy clusters that have been observed multiple times by Chandra or XMM, and compare our derived rate to previous surveys and theoretical calculations. In addition, we present two excellent examples of tidal disruption flares, monitored over 10 years each, and multi-wavelength analysis of their host galaxies. One of these flares has exceptional X-ray counting statistics and is associated with possible EUV evidence for super-Eddington emission. In addition, if its host galaxy is a cluster member, galaxy associated with this flare may be the smallest known galaxy to host a supermassive black hole.
This research has been supported by NASA ADP grant NNX08AJ35G.
No associations
LandOfFree
An X-ray Survey for Tidal Disruption Flares in Clusters of Galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with An X-ray Survey for Tidal Disruption Flares in Clusters of Galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and An X-ray Survey for Tidal Disruption Flares in Clusters of Galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1579843