The First Radio-Bright Off-Nuclear TDE 2024tvd Reveals the Fastest-Evolving Double-Peaked Radio Emission

TL;DR

This study reports the first detailed radio and millimeter monitoring of an off-nuclear TDE, revealing the fastest-evolving double-peaked radio emission, and explores the nature of the outflows involved.

Contribution

It provides the first multi-epoch broadband radio observations of an off-nuclear TDE, revealing rapid double-peaked radio emission and proposing models for the outflow dynamics.

Findings

First radio flare rises faster than t^9 and decays as t^-6.

Second radio flare emerges with a rise of t^18 and decline of t^-12.

Possible single or multiple outflows launched at different times.

Abstract

We present the first multi-epoch broadband radio and millimeter monitoring of an off-nuclear TDE using the VLA, ALMA, ATA, AMI-LA, and the SMA. The off-nuclear TDE 2024tvd exhibits double-peaked radio light curves and the fastest evolving radio emission observed from a TDE to date. With respect to the optical discovery date, the first radio flare rises faster than $F_{\rm \nu} \sim t^{9}$ at $\Delta t = 88-131$ days, and then decays as fast as $F_{\rm \nu} \sim t^{-6}$. The emergence of a second radio flare is observed at $\Delta t \approx 194$ days with an initial fast rise of $F_{\rm \nu} \sim t^{18}$, and an optically thin decline of $F_{\rm \nu} \sim t ^{-12}$. We interpret these observations in the context of a self-absorbed and free-free absorbed synchrotron spectrum, while accounting for both synchrotron and external inverse-Compton cooling. We find that a single prompt outflow cannot easily explain these observations and it is likely that either there is only one outflow that was launched at $\Delta t \sim 80$ days, or two distinct outflows, with the second launched at $\Delta t \sim 170-190$ days. The nature of these outflows, whether sub-, mildly-, or ultra-relativistic, is still unclear, and we explore these different scenarios. Finally, we find a temporal coincidence between the launch time of the first radio-emitting outflow and the onset of a power-law component in the X-ray spectrum, attributed to inverse-Compton scattering of thermal photons.