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Abstract The tidal disruption event (TDE) AT2018fyk showed a rapid dimming event 500 days after discovery, followed by a rebrightening roughly 700 days later. It has been hypothesized that this behavior results from a repeating partial TDE (rpTDE), such that prompt dimmings/shutoffs are coincident with the return of the star to pericenter and rebrightenings generated by the renewed supply of tidally stripped debris. This model predicted that the emission should shut off again around August of 2023. We report AT2018fyk’s continued X-ray and UV monitoring, which shows an X-ray (UV) drop-in flux by a factor of 10 (5) over a span of two months, starting 2023 August 14. This sudden change can be interpreted as the second emission shutoff, which (1) strengthens the rpTDE scenario for AT2018fyk, (2) allows us to constrain the orbital period to a more precise value of 1306 ± 47 days, and (3) establishes that X-ray and UV/optical emission track the fallback rate onto this supermassive black hole—an often-made assumption that otherwise lacks observational verification—and therefore, the UV/optical lightcurve is powered predominantly by processes tied to X-rays. The second cutoff implies that another rebrightening should happen between 2025 May and August, and if the star survived the second encounter, a third shutoff is predicted to occur between 2027 January and July. Finally, low-level accretion from the less-bound debris tail (which is completely unbound/does not contribute to accretion in a nonrepeating TDE) can result in a faint X-ray plateau that could be detectable until the next rebrightening. 

Abstract An accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole after it disrupts a star is expected to be initially misaligned with respect to the equatorial plane of the black hole. This misalignment induces relativistic torques (the Lense–Thirring effect) on the disk, causing the disk to precess at early times, whereas at late times the disk aligns with the black hole and precession terminates^1,2. Here we report, using high-cadence X-ray monitoring observations of a tidal disruption event (TDE), the discovery of strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations. These X-ray modulations are separated by roughly 15 days and persist for about 130 days during the early phase of the TDE. Lense–Thirring precession of the accretion flow can produce this X-ray variability, but other physical mechanisms, such as the radiation-pressure instability^3,4, cannot be ruled out. Assuming typical TDE parameters, that is, a solar-like star with the resulting disk extending at most to the so-called circularization radius, and that the disk precesses as a rigid body, we constrain the disrupting dimensionless spin parameter of the black hole to be 0.05 ≲ ∣a∣ ≲ 0.5. 

Abstract Observations and theory suggest that core-collapse supernovae can span a range of explosion energies, and when sub-energetic the shockwave initiating the explosion can decelerate to speeds comparable to the escape speed of the progenitor. In these cases, gravity will complicate the explosion hydrodynamics and conceivably cause the shock to stall at large radii within the progenitor star. To understand these unique properties of weak explosions, we develop a perturbative approach for modeling the propagation of an initially strong shock into a time-steady, infalling medium in the gravitational field of a compact object. This method writes the shock position and the post-shock velocity, density, and pressure as series solutions in the (time-dependent) ratio of the freefall speed to the shock speed, and predicts that the shock stalls within the progenitor if the explosion energy is below a critical value. We show that our model agrees very well with hydrodynamic simulations, and accurately predicts (for example) the time-dependent shock position and velocity and the radius at which the shock stalls. Our results have implications for black hole formation and the newly detected class of fast X-ray transients (FXTs). In particular, we propose that a “phantom shock breakout”—where the outer edge of the star falls through a stalled shock—can yield a burst of X-rays without a subsequent optical/UV signature, similar to FXTs. This model predicts the rise time of the X-ray burst,t_d, and the mean photon energy,kT, are anticorrelated, approximately as $T\propto t_{\mathrm{d}}^{-5/8}$. 

Galactic nuclei showing recurrent phases of activity and quiescence have recently been discovered. Some have recurrence times as short as a few hours to a day and are known as quasi-periodic X-ray eruption (QPE) sources. Others have recurrence times as long as hundreds to a thousand days and are called repeating nuclear transients. Here we present a multiwavelength overview of Swift J023017.0+283603 (hereafter Swift J0230+28), a source from which repeating and quasi-periodic X-ray flares are emitted from the nucleus of a previously unremarkable galaxy at ∼165 Mpc. It has a recurrence time of approximately 22 days, an intermediary timescale between known repeating nuclear transients and QPE sources. The source also shows transient radio emission, likely associated with the X-ray emission. Such recurrent soft X-ray eruptions, with no accompanying ultraviolet or optical emission, are strikingly similar to QPE sources. However, in addition to having a recurrence time that is ∼25 times longer than the longest-known QPE source, Swift J0230+28’s eruptions exhibit somewhat distinct shapes and temperature evolution compared to the known QPE sources. Scenarios involving extreme mass ratio inspirals are favoured over disk instability models. The source reveals an unexplored timescale for repeating extragalactic transients and highlights the need for a wide-field, time-domain X-ray mission to explore the parameter space of recurring X-ray transients. 

Abstract We present the tidal disruption event (TDE) AT2022lri, hosted in a nearby (≈144 Mpc) quiescent galaxy with a low-mass massive black hole (10⁴M_⊙<M_BH< 10⁶M_⊙). AT2022lri belongs to the TDE-H+He subtype. More than 1 Ms of X-ray data were collected with NICER, Swift, and XMM-Newton from 187 to 672 days after peak. The X-ray luminosity gradually declined from 1.5 × 10⁴⁴erg s⁻¹to 1.5 × 10⁴³erg s⁻¹and remains much above the UV and optical luminosity, consistent with a super-Eddington accretion flow viewed face-on. Sporadic strong X-ray dips atop a long-term decline are observed, with a variability timescale of ≈0.5 hr–1 days and amplitude of ≈2–8. When fitted with simple continuum models, the X-ray spectrum is dominated by a thermal disk component with inner temperature going from ∼146 to ∼86 eV. However, there are residual features that peak around 1 keV, which, in some cases, cannot be reproduced by a single broad emission line. We analyzed a subset of time-resolved spectra with two physically motivated models describing a scenario either where ionized absorbers contribute extra absorption and emission lines or where disk reflection plays an important role. Both models provide good and statistically comparable fits, show that the X-ray dips are correlated with drops in the inner disk temperature, and require the existence of subrelativistic (0.1–0.3c) ionized outflows. We propose that the disk temperature fluctuation stems from episodic drops of the mass accretion rate triggered by magnetic instabilities or/and wobbling of the inner accretion disk along the black hole’s spin axis. 

Binaries containing a compact object orbiting a supermassive black hole are thought to be precursors of gravitational wave events, but their identification has been extremely challenging. Here, we report quasi-periodic variability in x-ray absorption, which we interpret as quasi-periodic outflows (QPOuts) from a previously low-luminosity active galactic nucleus after an outburst, likely caused by a stellar tidal disruption. We rule out several models based on observed properties and instead show using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that QPOuts, separated by roughly 8.3 days, can be explained with an intermediate-mass black hole secondary on a mildly eccentric orbit at a mean distance of about 100 gravitational radii from the primary. Our work suggests that QPOuts could be a new way to identify intermediate/extreme-mass ratio binary candidates. 

Abstract We report the discovery of the unusually bright long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB), GRB 221009A, as observed by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift), Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image, and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Mission. This energetic GRB was located relatively nearby ( z = 0.151), allowing for sustained observations of the afterglow. The large X-ray luminosity and low Galactic latitude ( b = 4.°3) make GRB 221009A a powerful probe of dust in the Milky Way. Using echo tomography, we map the line-of-sight dust distribution and find evidence for significant column densities at large distances (≳10 kpc). We present analysis of the light curves and spectra at X-ray and UV–optical wavelengths, and find that the X-ray afterglow of GRB 221009A is more than an order of magnitude brighter at T 0 + 4.5 ks than that from any previous GRB observed by Swift. In its rest frame, GRB 221009A is at the high end of the afterglow luminosity distribution, but not uniquely so. In a simulation of randomly generated bursts, only 1 in 10 4 long GRBs were as energetic as GRB 221009A; such a large E γ ,iso implies a narrow jet structure, but the afterglow light curve is inconsistent with simple top-hat jet models. Using the sample of Swift GRBs with redshifts, we estimate that GRBs as energetic and nearby as GRB 221009A occur at a rate of ≲1 per 1000 yr—making this a truly remarkable opportunity unlikely to be repeated in our lifetime.