AT2019aalc as a TDE in an AGN

DOI

To date, three nuclear transients have been associated with high-energy neutrino events. These transients are generally thought to be powered by tidal disruptions of stars (TDEs) by massive black holes. However, AT2019aalc, hosted in a Seyfert-1 galaxy, was not yet classified due to a lack of multiwavelength observations. Interestingly, the source has re-brightened 4 years after its discovery.To date, three nuclear transients have been associated with high-energy neutrino events. These transients are generally thought to be powered by tidal disruptions of stars (TDEs) by massive black holes. However, AT2019aalc, hosted in a Seyfert-1 galaxy, was not yet classified due to a lack of multiwavelength observations. Interestingly, the source has re-brightened 4 years after its discovery. Our aim is to constrain the physical mechanism responsible for the second optical flare, which may also provide clues to the origin of the initial event. We conducted a multi-wavelength monitoring program (from radio to X-rays) of AT2019aalc during its re-brightening in 2023/2024. The observations revealed multiple X-ray flares during the second optical flaring episode of the transient and a uniquely bright UV counterpart. The second flare, similarly to the first one, is also accompanied by IR dust echo emission. A long-term radio flare is found with an inverted spectrum. Optical spectroscopic observations reveal the presence of Bowen Fluorescence lines and strong high-ionization coronal lines indicating an extreme level of ionization in the system. The results suggest that the transient can be classified as a Bowen Fluorescence Flare (BFF), a relatively new sub-class of flaring active galactic nuclei (AGN). AT2019aalc can be also classified as an extreme coronal line emitter (ECLE). We found that, in addition to AT2019aalc, another BFF AT2021loi is spatially coincident with a high-energy neutrino event. We propose a repeating TDE scenario within an AGN framework to explain the multi-wavelength properties of AT2019aalc and suggest a possible connection among ECLEs, BFFs, and TDEs occurring in AGNs.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier/bc-p2/ldce
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/706/A324
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/706/A324
Related Identifier https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/706/A324
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/706/A324
Provenance
Creator Veres P.M.; Franckowiak A.; van Velzen S.; Adebahr B.; Taziaux S.,Necker J.; Stein R.; Kier A.; Mueller A.; Bomans D.J.; Jordana-Mitjans N.,Kowalski M.; Hammerstein E.; Marci-Boehncke E.; Reusch S.; Garrappa S.,Rose S.; Kashyap Das K.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2026
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics