Dissonance in harmony: The UV/optical periodic outbursts of ASASSN-14ko exhibit repeated bumps and rebrightenings

TL;DR

This paper studies the changing optical and UV outburst profiles of the periodic transient ASASSN-14ko, revealing new features like bumps and rebrightenings, and discusses possible physical mechanisms behind these phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of recent alterations in the outburst profiles of ASASSN-14ko, highlighting new features and exploring potential physical explanations.

Findings

Detection of broader, more symmetrical bumps and rebrightenings in recent outbursts.

Similar X-ray spectral slopes with lower luminosity in recent epochs.

Energy estimates suggest collisions from partial tidal disruption events as a possible cause.

Abstract

ASASSN-14ko was identified as an abnormal periodic nuclear transient with a potential decreasing period. Its outbursts in the optical and UV bands have displayed a consistent and smooth "fast-rise and slow-decay" pattern since its discovery, which has recently experienced an unexpected alteration in the last two epochs, as revealed by our proposed high-cadence Swift observations. The new light curve profiles show a bump during the rising stages and a rebrightening during the declining stages, making them much broader and symmetrical than the previous ones. In the last two epochs, there is no significant difference in the X-ray spectral slope compared to the previous one, and its overall luminosity is lower than those of the previous epochs. The energy released in the early bump and rebrightening phases ($\sim10^{50}$ erg) could be due to collision of the stripped stream from partial tidal disruption events (pTDEs) with an expanded accretion disk. We also discussed other potential explanations, such as disk instability and star-disk collisions. Further high-cadence multi-wavelength observations of subsequent cycles are encouraged to comprehend the unique periodic source with its new intriguing features.