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Abstract We present the discovery of a second radio flare from the tidal disruption event (TDE) AT2020vwl via long-term monitoring radio observations. Late-time radio flares from TDEs are being discovered more commonly, with many TDEs showing radio emission thousands of days after the stellar disruption, but the mechanism that powers these late-time flares is uncertain. Here, we present radio spectral observations of the first and second radio flares observed from the TDE AT2020vwl. Through detailed radio spectral monitoring, we find evidence for two distinct outflow ejection episodes or a period of renewed energy injection into the preexisting outflow. We deduce that the second radio flare is powered by an outflow that is initially slower than the first flare but carries more energy and shows tentative indication of accelerating over time. Through modelling the long-term optical and UV emission from the TDE as arising from an accretion disk, we infer that the second radio outflow launch or energy injection episode occurred approximately at the time of the peak accretion rate. The fast decay of the second flare precludes environmental changes as an explanation, while the velocity of the outflow is at all times too low to be explained by an off-axis relativistic jet. Future observations that search for any link between the accretion disk properties and late-time radio flares from TDEs will aid understanding of what powers the radio outflows in TDEs and confirm if multiple outflow ejections or energy injection episodes are common. 

Abstract We present and evaluate the prospects for detecting coherent radio counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) events using Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) triggered observations. The MWA rapid-response system, combined with its buffering mode ($$\sim$$4 min negative latency), enables us to catch any radio signals produced from seconds prior to hours after a binary neutron star (BNS) merger. The large field of view of the MWA ($$\sim$$$$1\,000\,\textrm{deg}^2$$at 120 MHz) and its location under the high sensitivity sky region of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) detector network, forecast a high chance of being on-target for a GW event. We consider three observing configurations for the MWA to follow up GW BNS merger events, including a single dipole per tile, the full array, and four sub-arrays. We then perform a population synthesis of BNS systems to predict the radio detectable fraction of GW events using these configurations. We find that the configuration with four sub-arrays is the best compromise between sky coverage and sensitivity as it is capable of placing meaningful constraints on the radio emission from 12.6% of GW BNS detections. Based on the timescales of four BNS merger coherent radio emission models, we propose an observing strategy that involves triggering the buffering mode to target coherent signals emitted prior to, during or shortly following the merger, which is then followed by continued recording for up to three hours to target later time post-merger emission. We expect MWA to trigger on$$\sim$$$$5-22$$BNS merger events during the LVK O4 observing run, which could potentially result in two detections of predicted coherent emission.