The giant X-ray outbursts from nearby, non-active galaxies: tidal disruption flares ?

2000/01/14 by Stefanie Komossa, Komossa, Stefanie
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0001264

6 pages incl. 2 figures, needs agnsymp.cls; to appear in `ASCA/ROSAT Workshop on AGN and the X-ray Background' (Tokyo, Nov. 1-3, 1999), T. Takahashi and H. Inoue (eds). Typo in equation (1) corrected. Preprint and related papers also available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/~skomossa/

Abstract

One efficient method to probe the direct vicinity of SMBHs in nearby galaxies is to make use of the detection of flares from tidally disrupted stars (e.g., Lidskii & Ozernoi 1979, Rees 1988). The first few excellent candidates for the occurrence of this process in non-active galaxies have emerged recently. Here, we present a review of these observations, compare with variability in AGN, and discuss theoretical implications. We concentrate on the cases of NGC 5905 and RXJ1242-1119, and report results from a systematic search for further X-ray flares from a sample of >100 nearby galaxies.

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