Radio detections of TDEs AT2020ksf and AT2020zso
ATel #14337; Kate D. Alexander (Northwestern U.), Sjoert van Velzen (Leiden U.), James Miller-Jones, Gemma Anderson (Curtin U.), Edo Berger, Yvette Cendes (Harvard U.), Ryan Chornock, Deanne Coppejans (Northwestern U.), Tarraneh Eftekhari (Harvard U.), Suvi Gezari (STScI), Adelle Goodwin (Curtin U.), Aprajita Hajela (Northwestern U.), Tanmoy Laskar (U. of Bath), Andrew MacFadyen (NYU), Raffaella Margutti (Northwestern U.), Dheeraj Pasham (MIT), Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), Richard Saxton (ESA)
on 20 Jan 2021; 18:20 UT
Credential Certification: Kate Alexander (kate.alexander@northwestern.edu)
Subjects: Radio, Transient, Tidal Disruption Event
Referred to by ATel #: 14828
We report the first radio observations taken as part of a new VLA Large Program dedicated to tidal disruption events (TDEs). Following their public classification, we observed the TDEs AT2020ksf and AT2020zso on 2020 December 21 with NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The data were reduced in CASA following standard procedures. We report the detection of faint radio emission coincident with both objects:
Name | Date (UT) | Mean Obs Freq (GHz) | Flux density (μJy) | Uncertainty (μJy)
AT2020ksf | 2020 Dec 21 20:51:39 | 6.0 | 47 | 10
AT2020zso | 2020 Dec 21 22:36:26 | 15.0 | 22 | 7
Further observations are planned to determine the variability of this emission, and confirm its association with the TDEs.
Our VLA Large Program began in December 2020 and will continue until 2023. We plan to target new publicly-reported TDEs discovered at z < 0.1, to determine the true prevalence of radio emission in TDEs. We will report new results from this program to the community via ATels, TNS AstroNotes, and on our program website. For collaboration, or to suggest new targets, please contact the program PI (Kate Alexander) or one of the program co-Is.