The Extraordinary Long-lasting Infrared Echo of PS16dtm Reveals an Extremely Energetic Nuclear Outburst
Ning Jiang, Di Luo, Jiazheng Zhu, Roc M. Cutri

TL;DR
This paper reports the discovery of an exceptionally long-lasting infrared echo from the TDE candidate PS16dtm, revealing an extremely energetic nuclear outburst with a giant dust structure and high bolometric luminosity, challenging previous estimates.
Contribution
It introduces a refined dust echo model accounting for dust sublimation, demonstrating a significantly higher intrinsic luminosity and energy output in PS16dtm than previously estimated.
Findings
IR echo persists for over 7 years with constant color
Requires a giant dust structure with a radius of ~1.6 pc
Indicates a peak bolometric luminosity of ~6×10^{46} erg/s
Abstract
PS16dtm is one of the earliest reported candidate tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and displays a remarkably bright and long-lived infrared (IR) echo revealed by multi-epoch photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). After a rapid rise in the first year, the echo remains persistently at a high state from July 2017 to July 2024, the latest epoch, and keeps an almost constant color. We have fitted the extraordinary IR emission with a refined dust echo model by taking into account the dust sublimation process. The fitting suggests that an extremely giant dust structure with a new inner radius of pc and an ultra-high peak bolometric luminosity, i.e., for typical 0.1m-sized silicate grain, is required to account for the IR echo. This work highlights the distinctive value of IR echoes in…
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Taxonomy
TopicsLaser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics · Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies · Earthquake Detection and Analysis
