Results from the Search for Tidal Disruption Flares in the GALEX Deep Imaging Survey

Abstract

A supermassive black hole in the nucleus of a galaxy will be revealed when a star passes close enough to be torn apart by tidal forces and a UV/X-ray flare is emitted by the stream of stellar debris that plunges into the black hole. We initiated a program to take advantage of the UV sensitivity, large volume, and temporal sampling of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Deep Imaging Survey to search for stellar disruptions in the nuclei of galaxies over a large range of redshifts. Here we present the detection of a luminous UV flare from a quiescent galaxy with the properties of a tidal disruption event.

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