Reverberation in tidal disruption events: dust echoes, coronal emission lines, multi-wavelength cross-correlations, and QPOs

Kavli Affiliate: Dheeraj R. Pasham

| First 5 Authors: Sjoert van Velzen, Dheeraj R. Pasham, Stefanie Komossa, Lin Yan, Erin A. Kara

| Summary:

Stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) are typically discovered by transient
emission due to accretion or shocks of the stellar debris. Yet this luminous
flare can be reprocessed by gas or dust that inhabits a galactic nucleus,
resulting in multiple reverberation signals. Nuclear dust heated by the TDE
will lead to an echo at infrared wavelengths (1-10 $mu$m) and transient
coronal lines in optical spectra of TDEs trace reverberation by gas that orbits
the black hole. Both of these signal have been detected, here we review this
rapidly developing field. We also review the results that have been extracted
from TDEs with high-quality X-ray light curves: quasi periodic oscillations
(QPOs), reverberation lags of fluorescence lines, and cross-correlations with
emission at other wavelengths. The observational techniques that are covered in
this review probe the emission from TDEs over a wide range of scales: from
light years to the innermost parts of the newly formed accretion disk. They
provide insights into important properties of TDEs such as their bolometric
output and the geometry of the accretion flow. While reverberation signals are
not detected for every TDE, we anticipate they will become more commonplace
when the next generation of X-ray and infrared instruments become operational.

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