Kavli Affiliate: Dheeraj Pasham
| First 5 Authors: Dheeraj Pasham, Eric Coughlin, Chris Nixon, Michal Zajacek, Petra Sukova
| Summary:
SwJ023017.0+283603 (SwJ0230) exhibited soft X-ray (0.3-1.0 keV) eruptions
recurring roughly every 22 days. We present results from an extended monitoring
campaign of SwJ0230 using Swift, NICER, and deep XMM-Newton observations. Our
main findings are: 1) SwJ0230 did not display any eruptions during two 80-day
periods (June-September 2023 and July-September 2024) of high-cadence
monitoring with NICER and Swift, suggesting that the eruptions have ceased,
implying an eruption lifetime of less than 536 days; 2) quiescent/non-eruption
emission is detected with XMM-Newton, with a 0.3-2.0 keV luminosity of
4$times$10$^{40}$ erg/s (bolometric luminosity of $<$0.1% Eddington assuming a
black hole mass of 10$^{6-7}$ M$_{odot}$), that is consistent with a thermal
disk spectrum peaking at 0.11$^{+0.06}_{-0.03}$ keV; 3) SwJ0230 exhibited
multiple, rapid eruptions (duration$<$5 hours, similar to quasi-periodic
eruptions; QPEs), and there is tentative evidence that they recur, on average,
on roughly the same timescale of 22 days. target therefore exhibited (when
active) both rapid, QPE-like outbursts and longer-duration outbursts, more akin
to those from repeating partial Tidal Disruption Event (rpTDE) candidates.
These findings are difficult to explain with existing models that invoke an
orbiter interacting with a persistent disk and those involving disk
instabilities. We propose a hybrid model wherein an object of smaller mass
(e.g., a Jupiter-sized planet) being repeatedly partially stripped and
subsequently punching through its own, fallback-induced disk, can explain many
of the observed properties, including the long-duration flares (from
accretion), the short-duration outbursts (from the planet-disk interaction),
and the turn-off of the flares (when the planet is totally stripped of gas).
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