TY - JOUR

T1 - A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole

T2 - [Inkl. Correction]

AU - Andreoni, Igor

AU - Coughlin, Michael W.

AU - Perley, Daniel A.

AU - Yao, Yuhan

AU - Lu, Wenbin

AU - Cenko, S. Bradley

AU - Kumar, Harsh

AU - Anand, Shreya

AU - Ho, Anna Y. Q.

AU - Kasliwal, Mansi M.

AU - Postigo, Antonio de Ugarte

AU - Sagues-Carracedo, Ana

AU - Schulze, Steve

AU - Kann, D. Alexander

AU - Kulkarni, S. R.

AU - Sollerman, Jesper

AU - Tanvir, Nial

AU - Rest, Armin

AU - Izzo, Luca

AU - Somalwar, Jean J.

AU - Kaplan, David L.

AU - Ahumada, Tomas

AU - Anupama, G. C.

AU - Auchettl, Katie

AU - Barway, Sudhanshu

AU - Bellm, Eric C.

AU - Bhalerao, Varun

AU - Bloom, Joshua S.

AU - Bremer, Michael

AU - Bulla, Mattia

AU - Burns, Eric

AU - Campana, Sergio

AU - Chandra, Poonam

AU - Charalampopoulos, Panos

AU - Cooke, Jeff

AU - D'Elia, Valerio

AU - Das, Kaustav Kashyap

AU - Dobie, Dougal

AU - Fernandez, Jose Feliciano Agui

AU - Freeburn, James

AU - Fremling, Cristoffer

AU - Gezari, Suvi

AU - Goode, Simon

AU - Graham, Matthew J.

AU - Hammerstein, Erica

AU - Karambelkar, Viraj R.

AU - Kilpatrick, Charles D.

AU - Kool, Erik C.

AU - Krips, Melanie

AU - Laher, Russ R.

AU - Leloudas, Giorgos

AU - Levan, Andrew

AU - Lundquist, Michael J.

AU - Mahabal, Ashish A.

AU - Medford, Michael S.

AU - Miller, M. Coleman

AU - Moller, Anais

AU - Mooley, Kunal P.

AU - Nayana, A. J.

AU - Nir, Guy

AU - Pang, Peter T. H.

AU - Paraskeva, Emmy

AU - Perley, Richard A.

AU - Petitpas, Glen

AU - Pursiainen, Miika

AU - Ravi, Vikram

AU - Ridden-Harper, Ryan

AU - Riddle, Reed

AU - Rigault, Mickael

AU - Rodriguez, Antonio C.

AU - Rusholme, Ben

AU - Sharma, Yashvi

AU - Smith, I. A.

AU - Stein, Robert D.

AU - Thone, Christina

AU - Tohuvavohu, Aaron

AU - Valdes, Frank

AU - van Roestel, Jan

AU - Vergani, Susanna D.

AU - Wang, Qinan

AU - Zhang, Jielai

N1 - Correction: 10.1038/s41586-023-05699-0 Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05699-0

PY - 2022/12/15

Y1 - 2022/12/15

N2 - Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bursts of electromagnetic energy that are released when supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies violently disrupt a star that passes too close(1). TDEs provide a window through which to study accretion onto supermassive black holes; in some rare cases, this accretion leads to launching of a relativistic jet(2-9), but the necessary conditions are not fully understood. The best-studied jetted TDE so far is Swift J1644+57, which was discovered in gamma-rays, but was too obscured by dust to be seen at optical wavelengths. Here we report the optical detection of AT2022cmc, a rapidly fading source at cosmological distance (redshift z = 1.19325) the unique light curve of which transitioned into a luminous plateau within days. Observations of a bright counterpart at other wavelengths, including X-ray, submillimetre and radio, supports the interpretation of AT2022cmc as a jetted TDE containing a synchrotron 'afterglow', probably launched by a supermassive black hole with spin greater than approximately 0.3. Using four years of Zwicky Transient Facility(10) survey data, we calculate a rate of 0.02(-0.01)(+0.04) Gpc(-3) yr(-1) for on-axis jetted TDEs on the basis of the luminous, fast-fading red component, thus providing a measurement complementary to the rates derived from X-ray and radio observations(11). Correcting for the beaming angle effects, this rate confirms that approximately 1 per cent of TDEs have relativistic jets. Optical surveys can use AT2022cmc as a prototype to unveil a population of jetted TDEs.

AB - Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bursts of electromagnetic energy that are released when supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies violently disrupt a star that passes too close(1). TDEs provide a window through which to study accretion onto supermassive black holes; in some rare cases, this accretion leads to launching of a relativistic jet(2-9), but the necessary conditions are not fully understood. The best-studied jetted TDE so far is Swift J1644+57, which was discovered in gamma-rays, but was too obscured by dust to be seen at optical wavelengths. Here we report the optical detection of AT2022cmc, a rapidly fading source at cosmological distance (redshift z = 1.19325) the unique light curve of which transitioned into a luminous plateau within days. Observations of a bright counterpart at other wavelengths, including X-ray, submillimetre and radio, supports the interpretation of AT2022cmc as a jetted TDE containing a synchrotron 'afterglow', probably launched by a supermassive black hole with spin greater than approximately 0.3. Using four years of Zwicky Transient Facility(10) survey data, we calculate a rate of 0.02(-0.01)(+0.04) Gpc(-3) yr(-1) for on-axis jetted TDEs on the basis of the luminous, fast-fading red component, thus providing a measurement complementary to the rates derived from X-ray and radio observations(11). Correcting for the beaming angle effects, this rate confirms that approximately 1 per cent of TDEs have relativistic jets. Optical surveys can use AT2022cmc as a prototype to unveil a population of jetted TDEs.

KW - ZWICKY TRANSIENT FACILITY

KW - TIDAL DISRUPTION

KW - X-RAY

KW - ULTRAVIOLET TRANSIENT

KW - RELATIVISTIC JET

KW - PRE-SWIFT

KW - MILLIMETER

KW - SUPERNOVA

KW - STELLAR

KW - SCUBA-2

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8

DO - 10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36450988

VL - 612

SP - 430

EP - 434

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

IS - 7940

ER -