Double-Peaked Balmer Emission Indicating Prompt Accretion Disk Formation in an X-Ray Faint Tidal Disruption Event

• Main Authors: Hung, Tiara, Foley, Ryan J, Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico, Dai, Jane L, Auchettl, Katie, Kilpatrick, Charles D, Mockler, Brenna, Brown, Jonathan S, Coulter, David A, Dimitriadis, Georgios, Holoien, Thomas W. -S, Law-Smith, Jamie A. P, Piro, Anthony L, Rest, Armin, Rojas-Bravo, César, Siebert, Matthew R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-11-2020
• Subjects: Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2003.09427

We present the multi-wavelength analysis of the tidal disruption event (TDE)
AT~2018hyz (ASASSN-18zj). From follow-up optical spectroscopy, we detect the
first unambiguous case of resolved double-peaked Balmer emission in a TDE. The
distinct line profile can be well-modelled by a low eccentricity
($e\approx0.1$) accretion disk extending out to $\sim$100 $R_{p}$ and a
Gaussian component originating from non-disk clouds, though a bipolar outflow
origin cannot be completely ruled out. Our analysis indicates that in
AT~2018hyz, disk formation took place promptly after the most-bound debris
returned to pericenter, which we estimate to be roughly tens of days before the
first detection. Redistribution of angular momentum and mass transport,
possibly through shocks, must occur on the observed timescale of about a month
to create the large \Ha-emitting disk that comprises $\lesssim$5\% of the
initial stellar mass. With these new insights from AT~2018hyz, we infer that
circularization is efficient in at least some, if not all optically-bright,
X-ray faint TDEs. In these efficiently circularized TDEs, the detection of
double-peaked emission depends on the disk inclination angle and the relative
strength of the disk contribution to the non-disk component, possibly
explaining the diversity seen in the current sample.