Tidal flares and rates from an archival cluster survey

¹ Northwestern University, CIERA, 2131 Tech Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-2900, USA
² Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2131 Tech Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-2900, USA
³ University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 206 Gallalee Hall, 514 University Blvd., University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0324, USA

^a e-mail: wpmaksym@bama.ua.edu

Abstract

Tidal disruption flares (TDFs) are potent indicators of the co-evolution of galaxies and the massive black holes (MBHs) which they host in their nuclei, both in terms of the individual black holes revealed by tidal flares and in terms of the overall disruption rate. We examine key concerns regarding the disruption rate from an observational perspective. We also present the findings to date of an archival survey of galaxy clusters using X-ray variability selection and multi-wavelength follow-up. We present a disruption rate that is consistent with other observational and theoretical findings to date, as well as two noteworthy X-ray flares which we attribute to tidal disruption events.