Transient X-ray emission from normal galactic nuclei

Abstract

X-ray transients appearing in optically non-active galactic nuclei have been observed in recent years. The most popular model explaining this kind of phenomena is the conventional tidal disruption model. In this model, when a star moves within the tidal radius of a black hole, part of the star materials will fall into the black hole through an accretion disk, which gives rise to the luminous flare. We propose that the X-ray emission may not necessarily come from radiation of the accretion disk alone. Instead, it may be related to a jet. As the jet travels in the interstellar medium, a shock is produced and synchrotron radiation is expected. We compared the model light curve and the synchrotron radiation spectrum with the observed data and find that our model explains the observed light curve and late-time spectrum well. Our model predicts that these transient active galactic nuclei could be sources for study by the future gamma-ray satellites, e.g. GLAST, and the emission region will be expanding with time. © ESO 2007.