Description of Activity
Title: Tidal disruption events light up their black holes' surroundingsAbstract: A tiny fraction of galaxies exhibits strong, high-ionization coronal lines. Most of these are powered by active galactic nuclei, but in rare cases where the coronal lines fade away over time, a transient origin is assumed. Over the last few years, my group has provided several lines of evidence that tidal disruption events (TDEs) - bright flares emitted when stars are ripped apart by supermassive black holes - are behind this phenomenon. I will show how follow-up spectroscopy, multiwavelength archival observations, and measurements of the rates at which extreme coronal-line emitting galaxies (ECLEs) occur all point to a TDE origin. I will also show how the coronal lines can be used to map the cold gas in the vicinity (<1 pc) of the supermassive black holes at the centers of these galaxies.
| Period | 29 Apr 2026 |
|---|---|
| Held at | University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | National |
Related content
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Research outputs
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Long-term follow-up observations of extreme coronal line emitting galaxies
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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The rate of extreme coronal line emitting galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and their relation to tidal disruption events
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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AT 2018dyk: tidal disruption event or active galactic nucleus? Follow-up observations of an extreme coronal line emitter with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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The rate of extreme coronal line emitters in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey LOWZ sample
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Projects
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Cosmology, Gravitation and Astrophysics at Portsmouth
Project: Research