DRAFT
2024-02-16 19:33:11
Type: Object/s-Data/Analysis
Radio detection of the nuclear transient AT2020afhd/ZTF20abwtifz
Authors: Collin T. Christy (Arizona), Kate D. Alexander (Arizona), Noah Franz (Arizona), Walter W. Golay (Harvard), Suvi Gezari (STScI/JHU), Tanmoy Laskar (Utah), Tarraneh Eftekhari (Northwestern), Dheeraj R. Pasham (MIT), Miguel Pérez-Torres (IAA-CSIC), Yvette Cendes (Oregon), James Miller-Jones (ICRAR-Curtin)
Abstract:
We report the detection of radio emission coincident with the nuclear transient AT2020afhd.

We report the detection of radio emission from the nearby, X-ray bright nuclear transient AT2020afhd with NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Originally identified as ZTF20abwtifz/AT2020afhd, AT2020afhd began to brighten in the optical on 2024 January 5 (TNS Astronomical Transient Report No. 199575) and was originally classified as a tidal disruption event (TDE) at a redshift of z=0.024 on 2024 February 3 (TNS Classification Report No. 16506, AstroNote 2024-37). On 2024 February 15, AT2020afhd was reclassified as a Bowen Fluorescence Flare (BFF) at z=0.027 (luminosity distance of 119 Mpc) due to strong Balmer emission lines and an emission feature around He II 4686A (AstroNote 2024-53). 

We observed AT2020afhd with the VLA on 2024 February 9 UT 02:55 under program 24A-386 (PI: K. Alexander). We reduced the data in CASA using standard procedures. We report the detection of a point source at 15.1 GHz (Ku band) with a flux density of 253 +/- 5 +/-13 microJy (statistical +/- systematic), corresponding to a monochromatic radio luminosity of ~6.5e40 erg/s for a luminosity distance of 119 Mpc,  and position (RA, Dec) 03:13:35.70, -02:09:06.32 with a positional uncertainty of 0.02 arcseconds in each coordinate. This emission is coincident with the optical coordinates of AT2020afhd. Further VLA observations to constrain the broadband spectrum of the source are planned. We encourage additional multi-wavelength follow-up. 

We thank the VLA staff for rapidly executing these observations.

 

Show current TNS values
Catalog Name Reported RA Reported DEC Reported Obj-Type Reported Redshift Host Name Host Redshift Remarks TNS RA TNS DEC TNS Obj-Type TNS Redshift
TNS 2020afhd [ZTF20abwtifz] 03:13:35.667 -02:09:06.21 Other 0.027 03:13:35.700 -02:09:06.37 TDE 0.027

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