skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Muse reveals a recent merger in the post-starburst host galaxy of the tde ASASSN-14li

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3]; ; ;  [4]; ; ;  [5]; ;  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10]
  1. Núcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército 441, Santiago (Chile)
  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
  3. European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Casilla 19001, Santiago (Chile)
  4. Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Santiago (Chile)
  5. Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
  6. Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70-264, 04510, D.F., México (Mexico)
  7. Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Yi He Yuan Road 5, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100871 (China)
  8. Centro de Modelamiento Matemático, Universidad de Chile, Av. Blanco Encalada 2120, Piso 7, Santiago (Chile)
  9. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Luis E. Erro 1, 72840 Tonantzintla, Puebla, México (Mexico)
  10. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)

We present Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) integral field spectroscopic observations of the host galaxy (PGC 043234) of one of the closest (z = 0.0206, D ≃ 90 Mpc) and best-studied tidal disruption events (TDEs), ASASSN-14li. The MUSE integral field data reveal asymmetric and filamentary structures that extend up to ≳10 kpc from the post-starburst host galaxy of ASASSN-14li. The structures are traced only through the strong nebular [O iii] λ5007, [N ii] λ6584, and Hα emission lines. The total off-nuclear [O iii] λ5007 luminosity is 4.7 × 10{sup 39} erg s{sup −1}, and the ionized H mass is ∼10{sup 4}(500/n{sub e}) M{sub ⊙}. Based on the Baldwin–Phillips–Terlevich diagram, the nebular emission can be driven by either AGN photoionization or shock excitation, with AGN photoionization favored given the narrow intrinsic line widths. The emission line ratios and spatial distribution strongly resemble ionization nebulae around fading AGNs such as IC 2497 (Hanny's Voorwerp) and ionization “cones” around Seyfert 2 nuclei. The morphology of the emission line filaments strongly suggest that PGC 043234 is a recent merger, which likely triggered a strong starburst and AGN activity leading to the post-starburst spectral signatures and the extended nebular emission line features we see today. We briefly discuss the implications of these observations in the context of the strongly enhanced TDE rates observed in post-starburst galaxies and their connection to enhanced theoretical TDE rates produced by supermassive black hole binaries.

OSTI ID:
22868573
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 830, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (67)

Tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes: Status of observations journal September 2015
Tidal disruption of stars by black holes of 106–108 solar masses in nearby galaxies journal June 1988
Flows of X-ray gas reveal the disruption of a star by a massive black hole journal October 2015
Rates of tidal disruption of stars by massive central black holes journal October 1999
Nearby supernova host galaxies from the CALIFA Survey: I. Sample, data analysis, and correlation to star-forming regions⋆ journal November 2014
Candidate tidal disruption events from the XMM-Newton slew survey journal December 2006
Ionization cones and radio ejecta in active galaxies journal April 1994
Classification parameters for the emission-line spectra of extragalactic objects journal February 1981
The FIRST Survey: Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters journal September 1995
The Environment of ``E+A'' Galaxies journal July 1996
The tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole journal November 1989
The Spectral Energy Distributions of Low‐Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei journal May 1999
Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies journal July 2001
Revised Rates of Stellar Disruption in Galactic Nuclei journal January 2004
A Cosmological Framework for the Co‐evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity journal April 2008
UV/Optical Detections of Candidate Tidal Disruption Events by GALEX and CFHTLS journal April 2008
The MAPPINGS III Library of Fast Radiative Shock Models journal September 2008
Enhanced Tidal Disruption Rates from Massive Black hole Binaries journal May 2009
Tidal Stellar Disruptions by Massive Black hole Pairs. ii. Decaying Binaries journal February 2011
Galaxy-Wide Shocks in Late-Merger Stage Luminous Infrared Galaxies journal May 2011
The [o iii] Nebula of the Merger Remnant ngc 7252: a Likely Faint Ionization echo journal August 2013
The man Behind the Curtain: X-Rays Drive the uv Through nir Variability in the 2013 Active Galactic Nucleus Outburst in ngc 2617 journal May 2014
A CONTINUUM OF H- TO He-RICH TIDAL DISRUPTION CANDIDATES WITH A PREFERENCE FOR E+A GALAXIES journal September 2014
The Eleventh and Twelfth data Releases of the Sloan Digital sky Survey: Final data from Sdss-Iii journal July 2015
NO STRIPPED HYDROGEN IN THE NEBULAR SPECTRA OF NEARBY TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA 2011fe journal December 2012
ASASSN-14ae: a tidal disruption event at 200 Mpc journal October 2014
Rates of stellar tidal disruption as probes of the supermassive black hole mass function journal November 2015
Six months of multiwavelength follow-up of the tidal disruption candidate ASASSN-14li and implied TDE rates from ASAS-SN journal November 2015
Characterizing the environments of supernovae with MUSE journal December 2015
Hello darkness my old friend: the fading of the nearby TDE ASASSN-14ae journal August 2016
ASASSN-15oi: a rapidly evolving, luminous tidal disruption event at 216 Mpc journal September 2016
The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei journal December 2003
266 E+A galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2: the origin of E+A galaxies journal March 2005
Galaxy Zoo: ‘Hanny's Voorwerp’, a quasar light echo? journal October 2009
Optical flares from the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes: Optical signatures of tidally disrupted stars journal December 2009
The Galaxy Zoo survey for giant AGN-ionized clouds: past and present black hole accretion events: Giant AGN clouds journal December 2011
The MUSE second-generation VLT instrument conference July 2010
A radio jet from the optical and x-ray bright stellar tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li journal November 2015
ASASSN-14li: A MODEL TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT journal August 2016
Shocked Poststarbust Galaxy Survey. i. Candidate Post-Starbust Galaxies with Emission line Ratios Consistent with Shocks journal June 2016
Tidal Disruption Events Prefer Unusual host Galaxies journal February 2016
AN ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION FLARE ASASSN-14li journal February 2016
DISCOVERY OF AN OUTFLOW FROM RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li journal March 2016
An Enhanced rate of Tidal Disruptions in the Centrally Overdense e+a Galaxy ngc 3156 journal June 2016
THE WISE DETECTION OF AN INFRARED ECHO IN TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT ASASSN-14li journal August 2016
Optical Flares from the Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes journal August 2009
Nearby supernova host galaxies from the CALIFA survey: II. Supernova environmental metallicity journal June 2016
UV/Optical Detections of Candidate Tidal Disruption Events by GALEX and CFHTLS text January 2007
The MAPPINGS III Library of Fast Radiative Shock Models text January 2008
Enhanced tidal disruption rates from massive black hole binaries text January 2009
Galaxy Zoo : 'Hanny's Voorwerp', a quasar light echo? text January 2009
Tidal stellar disruptions by massive black hole pairs: II. Decaying binaries text January 2010
Galaxy-Wide Shocks in Late-Merger Stage Luminous Infrared Galaxies text January 2011
A Continuum of H- to He-Rich Tidal Disruption Candidates With a Preference for E+A Galaxies text January 2014
ASASSN-14ae: A Tidal Disruption Event at 200 Mpc text January 2014
Nearby supernova host galaxies from the CALIFA Survey: I. Sample, data analysis, and correlation to star-forming regions text January 2014
Tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes: Status of observations preprint January 2015
Discovery of an outflow from radio observations of the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li text January 2015
Flows of X-ray gas reveal the disruption of a star by a massive black hole text January 2015
A radio jet from the optical and x-ray bright stellar tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li text January 2015
An Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Tidal Disruption Flare ASASSN-14li text January 2016
Tidal Disruption Events Prefer Unusual Host Galaxies text January 2016
Shocked POststarbust Galaxy Survey I: Candidate Poststarbust Galaxies with Emission Line Ratios Consistent with Shocks text January 2016
Hello Darkness My Old Friend: The Fading of the Nearby TDE ASASSN-14ae text January 2016
The WISE Detection of an Infrared Echo in Tidal Disruption Event ASASSN-14li text January 2016
Revised Rates of Stellar Disruption in Galactic Nuclei text January 2003
Candidate tidal disruption events from the XMM-Newton Slew Survey text January 2006

Cited By (22)

Hot gas around SN 1998bw: Inferring the progenitor from its environment journal June 2017
The supermassive black hole coincident with the luminous transient ASASSN-15lh journal February 2018
The environment of the SN-less GRB 111005A at z = 0.0133 journal July 2018
The extraplanar type II supernova ASASSN-14jb in the nearby edge-on galaxy ESO 467-G051 journal September 2019
The ASAS-SN bright supernova catalogue – III. 2016 journal August 2017
Long-term radio and X-ray evolution of the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li journal January 2018
Systematic study of outflows in the Local Universe using CALIFA: I. Sample selection and main properties journal November 2018
The ASAS-SN bright supernova catalogue – IV. 2017 journal January 2019
The Post-starburst Evolution of Tidal Disruption Event Host Galaxies journal January 2017
iPTF16fnl: A Faint and Fast Tidal Disruption Event in an E+A Galaxy journal July 2017
A Dependence of the Tidal Disruption Event Rate on Global Stellar Surface Mass Density and Stellar Velocity Dispersion journal January 2018
PISCO: The PMAS/PPak Integral-field Supernova Hosts Compilation journal March 2018
Discovery of a Time Lag between the Soft X-Ray and Radio Emission of the Tidal Disruption Flare ASASSN-14li: Evidence for Linear Disk–Jet Coupling journal March 2018
Why Post-starburst Galaxies Are Now Quiescent journal July 2018
PS18kh: A New Tidal Disruption Event with a Non-axisymmetric Accretion Disk journal August 2019
The supermassive black hole coincident with the luminous transient ASASSN-15lh text January 2018
The Post-Starburst Evolution of Tidal Disruption Event Host Galaxies text January 2016
iPTF16fnl: a faint and fast tidal disruption event in an E+A galaxy text January 2017
A dependence of the tidal disruption event rate on global stellar surface mass density and stellar velocity dispersion text January 2017
The environment of the SN-less GRB 111005A at z = 0.0133 text January 2017
Discovery of a time lag between the soft X-ray and radio emission of the tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li: Evidence for linear disk-jet coupling text January 2017
Systematic study of outflows in the Local Universe using CALIFA: I. Sample selection and main properties text January 2018