The superluminous transient ASASSN-15lh as a tidal disruption event from a Kerr black hole
- Jonker P. G.
- Valenti S.
- Krìhler T.
- Hosseinzadeh G.
- Maund J. R.
- Harmanen J.
- Childress M.
- Campbell H.
- McCully C. V.
- Chen T.-W.
- Bar I.
- Gal-Yam A.
- Yaron O.
- Arcavi I.
- Inserra C.
- Patat F.
- Howell D. A.
- Elias-Rosa N.
- de Ugarte Postigo A.
- Leloudas G.
- Sollerman J.
- De Cia A.
- Vreeswijk P. M.
- Tucker B. E.
- Johansson J.
- Romero-Cañizales C.
- Malesani D.
- Fremling C.
- Lyman J.
- Kim S.
- Mazzali P. A.
- Mattila S.
- Smartt S. J.
- Kuncarayakti H.
- Sullivan M.
- Young D. R.
- Schulze S.
- Prentice S.
- Magee M. R.
- Ashall C.
- Kankare E.
- Stone N. C.
- van Velzen S.
- Maguire K.
- Kangas T.
- Nicholl M.
- Miller-Jones J. C. A.
- Wheeler J. C.
- Smith K. W.
- Fraser M.
DOIAbstract
When a star passes within the tidal radius of a supermassive black hole, it will be torn apart1. For a star with the mass of the Sun (M ⊙) and a non-spinning black hole with a mass 8 M ⊙, the tidal radius lies outside the black hole event horizon2 and the disruption results in a luminous flare3-6. Here we report observations over a period of ten months of a transient, hitherto interpreted7 as a superluminous supernova8. Our data show that the transient rebrightened substantially in the ultraviolet and that the spectrum went through three different spectroscopic phases without ever becoming nebular. Our observations are more consistent with a tidal disruption event than a superluminous supernova because of the temperature evolution6, the pre...
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