Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino
Simeon Reusch, Robert Stein, M. Kowalski, Sjoert van Velzen, A. Franckowiak, Cecilia Lunardini, Kohta Murase, Walter Winter, J. C. A. Miller‐Jones, M. M. Kasliwal, M. Gilfanov, S. Garrappa, Vaidehi S. Paliya, Tomás Ahumada, Shreya Anand, C. Barbarino, Eric C. Bellm, V. Brinnel, S. Buson, S. B. Cenko, M. W. Coughlin, Kishalay De, Richard Dekany, Sara Frederick, A. Gal‐Yam, Suvi Gezari, M. Giroletti, M. J. Graham, Viraj Karambelkar, Shigeo S. Kimura, A. K. H. Kong, Erik C. Kool, Russ R. Laher, П. С. Медведев, Jannis Necker, J. Nordin, D. A. Perley, M. Rigault, B. Rusholme, S. Schulze, T. Schweyer, L. P. Singer, J. Sollerman, N. L. Strotjohann, R. Sunyaev, J. V. Santen, Richard Walters, B. Theodore Zhang, E. Zimmerman
Abstract
The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one high-energy neutrino was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident with another high-energy neutrino. Our observations, including a bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support a TDE origin of this flare. The probability of finding two such bright events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for neutrino production and show that AT2019fdr is capable of producing the observed high-energy neutrino, reinforcing the case for TDEs as neutrino sources.