An X-ray and UV flare from the galaxy XMMSL1 J061927.1-655311 [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.1500


New high variability extragalactic sources may be identified by comparing the flux of sources seen in the XMM-Newton Slew Survey with detections and upper limits from the ROSAT All Sky Survey. In November 2012, X-ray emission was detected from the galaxy XMMSL1 J061927.1-655311 (a.k.a. 2MASX 06192755-6553079), a factor 140 times higher than an upper limit from 20 years earlier. Both the X-ray and UV flux subsequently fell, over the following year, by factors of 20 and 4 respectively. Optically, the galaxy appears to be a Seyfert I with broad Balmer lines and weak, narrow, low-ionisation emission lines, at a redshift of 0.0729. The X-ray luminosity peaks at Lx ~ 8×10^43 ergs/s with a typical Sy I-like power-law X-ray spectrum of index ~ 2. The flare has either been caused by a tidal disruption event or by an increase in the accretion rate of a persistent AGN.

Read this paper on arXiv…

R. Saxton, A. Read, S. Komossa, et. al.
Tue, 7 Oct 14
36/69

Comments: 10 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A