Birth of a relativistic outflow in the unusual γ-ray transient Swift J164449.3+573451

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Author
Frail, D. A.
Brunthaler, A.
Carpenter, J. M.
Pooley, G. G.
Mooley, K.
Kulkarni, S. R.
Fox, D. B.
Nakar, E.
Volgenau, N. H.
Culverhouse, T. L.
Bietenholz, M. F.
Rupen, M. P.
Max-Moerbeck, W.
Readhead, A. C. S.
Richards, J.
Shepherd, M.
Storm, S.
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https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10366Metadata
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Zauderer, B. A., E. Berger, A. M. Soderberg, A. Loeb, R. Narayan, D. A. Frail, G. R. Petitpas, et al. 2011. Birth of a Relativistic Outflow in the Unusual γ-Ray Transient Swift J164449.3+573451. Nature 476, no. 7361: 425–428. doi:10.1038/nature10366Abstract
Active galactic nuclei, which are powered by long-term accretion onto central supermassive black holes, produce1 relativistic jets with lifetimes of at least one million years, and the observation of the birth of such a jet is therefore unlikely. Transient accretion onto a supermassive black hole, for example through the tidal disruption2, 3 of a stray star, thus offers a rare opportunity to study the birth of a relativistic jet. On 25 March 2011, an unusual transient source (Swift J164449.3+573451) was found4, potentially representing5, 6 such an accretion event. Here we report observations spanning centimetre to millimetre wavelengths and covering the first month of evolution of a luminous radio transient associated with Swift J164449.3+573451. The radio transient coincides7 with the nucleus of an inactive galaxy. We conclude that we are seeing a newly formed relativistic outflow, launched by transient accretion onto a million-solar-mass black hole. A relativistic outflow is not predicted in this situation, but we show that the tidal disruption of a star naturally explains the observed high-energy properties and radio luminosity and the inferred rate of such events. The weaker beaming in the radio-frequency spectrum relative to γ-rays or X-rays suggests that radio searches may uncover similar events out to redshifts of z ≈ 6.Other Sources
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