A Possible Relativistic Jetted Outburst from a Massive Black Hole Fed by a Tidally Disrupted Star

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1207150
• Publication Date: 2011-06-17T23:08:38Z
• Authors: Joshua S. Bloom; Dimitrios Giannios; Brian D. Metzger; S. Bradley Cenko; Daniel A. Perley; Nathaniel R. Butler; Nial R. Tanvir; Andrew J. Levan; Paul T. O' Brien; Linda E. Strubbe; Fabio De Colle; Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz; William H. Lee; Sergei Nayakshin; Eliot Quataert; Andrew R. King; Antonino Cucchiara; James Guillochon; Geoffrey C. Bower; Andrew S. Fruchter; Adam N. Morgan; Alexander J. van ...
• Keywords: Black hole (networking); Astrophysical jet; Flare; Solar mass

While gas accretion onto some massive black holes (MBHs) at the centers of galaxies actively powers luminous emission, vast majority MBHs are considered dormant. Occasionally, a star passing too near MBH is torn apart by gravitational forces, leading to bright panchromatic tidal disruption flare (TDF). high-energy transient Swift J164449.3+573451 ("Sw 1644+57") initially displayed none theoretically anticipated (nor previously observed) TDF characteristics, we show that observations (Levan et al. 2011) suggest sudden event central mass ~10^6-10^7 solar masses. We find evidence for mildly relativistic outflow, jet collimation, and spectrum characterized synchrotron inverse Compton processes; this leads natural analogy Sw 1644+57 with smaller-scale blazar. The phenomenologically novel thus connects study TDFs active galaxies, opening new vista on disk-jet interactions in BHs magnetic field generation transport systems.