Radio detection of the tidal disruption event ZTF20achpcvt/AT2020vwl

ATel #14439; Adelle Goodwin (Curtin U.), James Miller-Jones (Curtin U.), Kate D. Alexander (Northwestern U.), Sjoert van Velzen (Leiden U.), Gemma Anderson (Curtin U.), Edo Berger, Yvette Cendes (Harvard U.), Ryan Chornock, Deanne Coppejans (Northwestern U.), Tarraneh Eftekhari (Harvard U.), Suvi Gezari (STScI), 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 5 Mar 2021; 08:31 UT
Credential Certification: Adelle Goodwin (adelle.goodwin@monash.edu)

Tweet

We report on radio follow up observations of the optically-identified tidal disruption event (TDE) ZTF20achpcvt/AT2020vwl taken as part of our VLA Large program dedicated to TDEs. AT2020vwl was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on 2020 October 8 and classified as a TDE due to its optical spectrum and bright UV flux on 2021 January 15.

We observed AT2020vwl on 2021 February 23 13:03:02.0 (UT) with NRAO's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The data were reduced in CASA following standard procedures. We report the detection of a point source at 8-12 GHz (X band) with coordinates (RA, Dec) 15:30:37.80, +26:58:56.90, and a positional uncertainty of 0.02 arcseconds. This emission is coincident with the optical coordinates of AT2020vwl. We measure flux densities of 552 +/- 5 uJy at 9 GHz and 493 +/- 6 uJy at 11 GHz.

Further VLA observations have been taken over a wider range of frequencies to better characterise the radio emission from this source. We thank NRAO and the VLA staff for the rapid scheduling of these observations.

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 (https://sites.northwestern.edu/radiotdes/). For collaboration, or to suggest new targets, please contact the program PI (Kate Alexander, kate.alexander@northwestern.edu)