2026/07/16 by Yongxin Wu, Yanan Wang, Thomas M. Reynolds +38
#astro-ph.HE
We present multi-wavelength observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) 2024aepd, spanning primarily the first ∼300 days after discovery. The X-ray spectrum is initially dominated by a thermal disk component accompanied by a hard excess. From ∼178 days onward, the spectrum becomes power-law dominated and subsequently hardens, indicating the rapid emergence and strengthening of a hot corona. A prominent near-infrared (NIR) excess is detected as early as ∼40 days. Its nearly flat power-law spectrum strongly deviates from the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the UV-optical blackbody. Although a conventional dust-echo origin cannot be completely ruled out, free-free emission from a reprocessing photospheric envelope provides a more plausible explanation. Moreover, the UV-optical-to-NIR break shifts to higher frequencies as the density-profile index remains nearly constant, implying evolving reprocessing conditions within a broadly unchanged density structure. Together with AT2019azh and TDE 2025abcr, TDE 2024aepd is the third TDE reported to exhibit an early-time NIR excess. A larger sample with early-time NIR coverage is needed to determine whether such excesses are common among TDEs.