A failed-outflow model for the UV/optical blackbody emission in tidal disruption events

TL;DR

This paper proposes a failed-outflow model where a line-absorbing shell regulates temperature and explains the nearly constant temperature despite declining UV/optical emission in tidal disruption events.

Contribution

It introduces a novel failed-outflow mechanism involving an optically thick shell that accounts for observed UV/optical behaviors in TDEs.

Findings

The model explains constant temperature during declining emission.

Line absorption regulates shell mass and temperature.

Shell dynamics balance radiation force and gravity.

Abstract

The temperature remains nearly constant while blackbody emission in UV/optical bands declines more than one order of magnitude in some tidal disruption events (TDEs). The physics behind it is still a mystery. A strong outflow can be driven by the radiation of the disc with super-Eddington luminosity. The disc emission drops rapidly to sub-Eddington luminosity, and the gas may fall back to the black hole. An optically thick shell is formed with gas temperature $\la 5\times 10^4$K due to line absorption, which is irradiated by the disc, and is re-emitting UV/optical photons. As the shell moves inwards, the gas at the inner surface of the shell is completely ionized at a certain temperature $\sim 10^4-5\times 10^4$K, which makes the gas optically thin for line absorption, and it therefore falls from the shell. This line absorbing layer acts as temperature regulator, i.e., the gas in the inner shell surface is removed to reduce the shell mass while the temperature is rising, and the decrease of the shell mass (gravity) decelerates the shell till a new balance is achieved between the radiation force and the gravity. This failed-outflow model can naturally explain the declining UV/optical blackbody radiation with constant temperature.