Contributed talk at TDEs and NTs in Crete, vol. 2

Description of Activity

Linking Tidal Disruption Events to Extreme Coronal Line Emitting Galaxies

A small number of galaxies have been observed to emit abnormally strong highly ionized coronal lines that fade away over time. Although these lines have been suggested to be the product of reprocessed soft X-ray and hard UV photons from tidal disruption events (TDEs), until recently only seven such extreme coronal line emitting galaxies (ECLEs) were known, and other sources, such as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) could not be ruled out conclusively. My group has created a dedicated ECLE detection code, which we have applied to SDSS, BOSS, and DESI. We have more than doubled the sample of ECLEs; devised spectroscopic and multiwavelength photometric diagnostics to tell which ECLEs may be linked to AGNs and which may be caused by TDEs; and measured the rates of TDE-linked ECLEs at redshifts 0.1 - 0.4. We have shown that ECLEs in which the strength of the coronal lines and mid-IR emission remain constant are AGNs, while ECLEs in which both the coronal lines and the mid-IR emission exponentially fade over time are consistent with TDEs. The rates of these variable ECLEs are also consistent with previously measured TDE rates and imply that 5-50% of TDEs give rise to ECLEs. This percentage is consistent with the fraction of normally discovered TDEs that have been observed to develop coronal lines in their spectra. With the link between TDEs and ECLEs now firmly in place, I will conclude by showing how our observations of TDE-linked ECLEs can be used to map the cold gas surrounding both active and passive supermassive black holes and provide new insights into the physics of their accretion disks.

Period	28 Aug 2026
Event title	TDEs and NTs in Crete, vol. 2
Event type	Conference
Location	Heraklion, GreeceShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International