Unbeamed tidal disruption events at hard X-rays

TL;DR

This study identifies a new sample of unbeamed tidal disruption events emitting in hard X-rays, revealing their frequency and suggesting that hard X-ray emission is common in such events, indicating electron acceleration in their accretion flows.

Contribution

First detection and characterization of unbeamed TDEs in hard X-rays, establishing their occurrence rate and emission properties.

Findings

Nine TDE candidates identified in hard X-ray data.

The TDE rate in hard X-rays matches soft X-ray and optical observations.

Hard X-ray emission is likely common in unbeamed TDEs.

Abstract

Owing to their thermal emission, tidal disruption events (TDEs) were regularly detected in the soft X-rays and sometimes in the optical. Only a few TDEs have been detected at hard X-rays: two are high redshift beamed events, one of which occurred at the core of a nearby galaxy, and the most recent one is of a different nature, involving a compact object in the Milky Way. The aims of this work are to obtain a first sample of hard X-ray-selected unbeamed TDEs, to determine their frequency and to probe whether TDEs usually or exceptionally emit at hard X-ray energies. We performed extensive searches for hard X-ray flares at positions in over 53000 galaxies, up to a distance of 100 Mpc in the Swift BAT archive. Light curves were extracted and parametrized. The quiescent hard X-ray emission was used to exclude persistently active galactic nuclei. Significant flares from non-active galaxies were derived and checked for possible contamination. We found a sample of nine TDE candidates, which translates into a rate of $2 \times 10^{-5}\,{\rm galaxy}^{-1}\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$ above the BAT detection limit. This rate is consistent with those observed by XMM-Newton at soft X-rays and in the optical from SDSS observations, and is as expected from simulations. We conclude that hard X-ray emission should be ubiquitous in un-beamed TDEs and that electrons should be accelerated in their accretion flow.