Tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide a unique window into the otherwise quiescent massive black hole (MBH) population. Sample studies of TDEs in galaxy nucleus and off-nuclear locations can address fundamental open questions about MBHs, including their origin and growth via mergers. Over the past few years, time domain sky surveys such as the optical Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) have led...
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star is torn apart by the immense tidal forces emanating from a supermassive black hole (SMBH). These events serve as dynamic laboratories for studying dormant SMBHs, their environments, and the physical processes associated with SMBHs, including the formation of accretion flows. Among the numerous enigmatic phenomena associated with TDEs, a...
Swift has made seminal contributions to the study of tidal disruption events (TDEs), in particular the discovery of three relativistic jetted TDEs and the first intermediate timescale quasi-periodic erupter. In this talk, I will discuss a unique source discovered in archival XRT data that continues this legacy. LSXPS J0956 appears, at first glance, to be a typical thermal X-ray TDE. However,...
In the last five years, a mysterious new class of astrophysical transients have been uncovered using primarily X-ray telescopes. These sources are spatially coincident with centers of galaxies and show X-ray variations that repeat with quasi–periodicities on timescales of minutes to ~ a few years. One of the prevailing ideas for these Repeating Extragalactic Nuclear Transients (RENTs) is that...
AT2020afhd was first discovered in the optical by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and reported as an X-ray-detected tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate with broad Balmer and He II emission in February 2024. Subsequent observations with Swift/UVOT and XRT revealed striking behavior, with UV characteristics comparable to optically-selected TDEs but with prominent X-ray variability. In...
