RBS 1032: A Tidal Disruption Event in Another Dwarf Galaxy? [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.2928


RBS 1032 is a supersoft ($\Gamma\sim5$), luminous ($\sim10^{43}$ erg/s) ROSAT PSPC source which has been associated with an inactive dwarf galaxy at $z=0.026$, SDSS J114726.69+494257.8. We have analyzed an XMM-Newton observation which confirms that RBS 1032 is indeed associated with the dwarf galaxy. Moreover, RBS 1032 has undergone a factor of $\sim100-300$ decay since November 1990. This variability suggests that RBS 1032 may not be a steadily accreting intermediate-mass black hole, but rather an accretion flare from the tidal disruption of a star by the central black hole (which may or may not be intermediate-mass). We suggest that additional tidal disruption events may remain unidentified in archival ROSAT data, such that disruption rate estimates based upon ROSAT All-Sky Survey data may need reconsideration.

Read this paper on arXiv…

W. Maksym, D. Lin and J. Irwin
Fri, 11 Jul 14
13/49

Comments: Submitted for publication. 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table