AT 2017gbl: a dust obscured TDE candidate in a luminous infrared galaxy

ABSTRACT We present the discovery with Keck of the extremely infrared (IR) luminous transient AT 2017gbl, coincident with the Northern nucleus of the luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) IRAS 23436+5257. Our extensive multiwavelength follow-up spans ∼900 d, including photometry and spectroscopy in the optical and IR, and (very long baseline interferometry) radio and X-ray observations. Radiative transfer modelling of the host galaxy spectral energy distribution and long-term pre-outburst variability in the mid-IR indicate the presence of a hitherto undetected dust obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). The optical and near-IR spectra show broad ∼2000 km s−1 hydrogen, He i, and O i emission features that decrease in flux over time. Radio imaging shows a fast evolving compact source of synchrotron emission spatially coincident with AT 2017gbl. We infer a lower limit for the radiated energy of 7.3 × 1050 erg from the IR photometry. An extremely energetic supernova would satisfy this budget, but is ruled out by the radio counterpart evolution. Instead, we propose AT 2017gbl is related to an accretion event by the central supermassive black hole, where the spectral signatures originate in the AGN broad line region and the IR photometry is consistent with re-radiation by polar dust. Given the fast evolution of AT 2017gbl, we deem a tidal disruption event (TDE) of a star a more plausible scenario than a dramatic change in the AGN accretion rate. This makes AT 2017gbl the third TDE candidate to be hosted by a LIRG, in contrast to the so far considered TDE population discovered at optical wavelengths and hosted preferably by post-starburst galaxies.

A Compton-thick nucleus in the dual active galactic nuclei of Mrk 266

We present the results from our analysis of NuSTAR data of the luminous infrared galaxy Mrk 266, which contains two nuclei, south-western (SW) and north-eastern (NE), which were resolved in previous Chandra imaging. Combining this with the Chandra data, we intepret the hard X-ray spectrum obtained from a NuSTAR observation to result from a steeply rising flux from a Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the SW nucleus which is very faint in the Chandra band, confirming the previous claim. This hard X-ray component is dominated by reflection, and its intrinsic 2–10 keV luminosity is likely to be ∼1 × 1043 erg s−1. Although it is bright in soft X-ray, only a moderately absorbed NE nucleus has a 2–10 keV luminosity of 4 × 1041 erg s−1, placing it in the low-luminosity AGN class. These results have implications for understanding the detectability and duty cycles of emission from dual AGN in heavily obscured mergers.

The 300-pc scale ALMA view of [C i] 3P1–3P0, CO J = 1–0, and 609-μm dust continuum in a luminous infrared galaxy

ABSTRACT We present high-quality Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 8 observations of the [C i] 3P1–3P0 line and 609-μm dust continuum emission towards the nearby luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) IRAS F18293-3413, as well as matched resolution (300-pc scale) Band 3 CO J = 1–0 data, which allow us to assess the use of the [C i] 3P1–3P0 line as a total gas mass estimator. We find that the [C i] line basically traces structures detected in CO (and dust) and a mean (median) [C i]/CO luminosity ($L^{\prime }_{\rm [C\, {\small I}]}$/$L^{\prime }_{\rm CO}$) ratio of 0.17 (0.16) with a scatter of 0.04. However, a pixel-by-pixel comparison revealed that there is a radial $L^{\prime }_{\rm [C\, {\small I}]}$/$L^{\prime }_{\rm CO}$ gradient and a superlinear $L^{\prime }_{\rm CO}$ versus $L^{\prime }_{\rm [C\, {\small I}]}$ relation (slope = 1.54 ± 0.02) at this spatial scale, which can be explained by radial excitation and/or line opacity gradients. Based on the molecular gas masses converted from the dust continuum emission, we found that the CO-to-H2 and [C i]-to-H2 conversion factors are relatively flat across the molecular gas disc with a median value of 3.5$^{+1.9}_{-1.3}$ and 20.7$^{+9.2}_{-4.9}$ M⊙ (K km s−1 pc2)−1, respectively. A non-LTE calculation yields that typical molecular gas properties seen in nearby (U)LIRGs ($n_{\rm H_2}$ = 103−4 cm−3, Tkin ∼ 50 K, and $X_{\rm C\, {\small I}}$ = (0.8–2.3) × 10−5) can naturally reproduce the derived [C i]-to-H2 conversion factor. However, we caution that a careful treatment of the physical gas properties is required in order to measure H2 gas mass distributions in galaxies using a single [C i] line. Otherwise, a single [C i] line is not a good molecular gas estimator in a spatially resolved manner.