Tidal Disruption Event Demographics with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Volumetric Rates, Luminosity Function, and Implications for the Local Black Hole Mass Function

Yao, Y ORCID: 0000-0001-6747-8509, Ravi, V ORCID: 0000-0002-7252-5485, Gezari, S ORCID: 0000-0003-3703-5154, van Velzen, S ORCID: 0000-0002-3859-8074, Lu, W ORCID: 0000-0002-1568-7461, Schulze, S ORCID: 0000-0001-6797-1889, Somalwar, JJ ORCID: 0000-0001-8426-5732, Kulkarni, SR ORCID: 0000-0001-5390-8563, Hammerstein, E ORCID: 0000-0002-5698-8703, Nicholl, M ORCID: 0000-0002-2555-3192, Graham, MJ ORCID: 0000-0002-3168-0139, Perley, DA ORCID: 0000-0001-8472-1996, Cenko, SB ORCID: 0000-0003-1673-970X, Stein, R ORCID: 0000-0003-2434-0387, Ricarte, A ORCID: 0000-0001-5287-0452, Chadayammuri, U, Quataert, E ORCID: 0000-0001-9185-5044, Bellm, EC ORCID: 0000-0001-8018-5348, Bloom, JS ORCID: 0000-0002-7777-216X, Dekany, R ORCID: 0000-0002-5884-7867 et al (2023) Tidal Disruption Event Demographics with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Volumetric Rates, Luminosity Function, and Implications for the Local Black Hole Mass Function. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 955 (1). pp. 1-31. ISSN 2041-8205

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Abstract

We conduct a systematic tidal disruption event (TDE) demographics analysis using the largest sample of optically selected TDEs. A flux-limited, spectroscopically complete sample of 33 TDEs is constructed using the Zwicky Transient Facility over 3 yr (from 2018 October to 2021 September). We infer the black hole (BH) mass (M BH) with host galaxy scaling relations, showing that the sample M BH ranges from 105.1 M ⊙ to 108.2 M ⊙. We developed a survey efficiency corrected maximum volume method to infer the rates. The rest-frame g-band luminosity function can be well described by a broken power law of ϕ ( L g ) ∝ L g / L bk 0.3 + L g / L bk 2.6 − 1 , with L bk = 1043.1 erg s−1. In the BH mass regime of 105.3 ≲ (M BH/M ⊙) ≲ 107.3, the TDE mass function follows ϕ ( M BH ) ∝ M BH − 0.25 , which favors a flat local BH mass function ( dn BH / d log M BH ≈ constant ). We confirm the significant rate suppression at the high-mass end (M BH ≳ 107.5 M ⊙), which is consistent with theoretical predictions considering direct capture of hydrogen-burning stars by the event horizon. At a host galaxy mass of M gal ∼ 1010 M ⊙, the average optical TDE rate is ≈3.2 × 10−5 galaxy−1 yr−1. We constrain the optical TDE rate to be [3.7, 7.4, and 1.6] × 10−5 galaxy−1 yr−1 in galaxies with red, green, and blue colors.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	American Astronomical Society; IOP Publishing
Date of acceptance:	11 August 2023
Date of first compliant Open Access:	3 January 2024
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2024 15:26
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2025 12:36
DOI or ID number:	10.3847/2041-8213/acf216
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22162

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