Optical Polarimetry of the Tidal Disruption Event AT2019DSG

Lee, Chien-Hsiu and Hung, Tiara and Matheson, Thomas and Soraisam, Monika and Narayan, Gautham and Saha, Abhjita and Stubens, Carl and Wolf, Nicholas (2020) Optical Polarimetry of the Tidal Disruption Event AT2019DSG. The Astrophysical Journal, 892 (1). L1. ISSN 2041-8213

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Abstract

We present time-series imaging polarimetry observations of a nearby tidal disruption event (TDE) AT2019DSG at z = 0.0512 to probe the disruption mechanism and shed light on the accretion process. We obtain linear polarimetry using the Alhambra Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera on board the 2.5 m Nordic Optical Telescope. Our observations showed a polarization at the 9.2% ± 2.7% level early on, decreasing to less than 2.7% (at the 68% confidence level) one month later. While the high level of polarization in the early epoch is similar to that of Swift J164449.3+573451 and Swift J2058+0516, the low level of polarization in the later epoch is in agreement with that of OGLE16aaa. Our results thus show the temporal evolution of optical polarization from a TDE. As the degree of polarization changes over time, it is unlikely to be attributed to host galaxy dust, but may originate from a non-isotropic accreting disk, or associated with the relativistic jet emission.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: AP Academic Press > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email support@apacademicpress.com
Date Deposited: 26 May 2023 05:44
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2024 03:49
URI: http://info.openarchivespress.com/id/eprint/1373

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