Detection of disk-jet co-precession in a tidal disruption event

Yanan Wang; Zikun Lin; Linhui Wu; Weihua Lei; Shuyuan Wei; Shuang-Nan Zhang; Long Ji; Santiago del Palacio; Ranieri D. Baldi; Yang Huang; Jifeng Liu; Bing Zhang; Aiyuan Yang; Rurong Chen; Yangwei Zhang; Ailing Wang; Lei Yang; Panos Charalampopoulos; David R. A. Williams-Baldwin; Zhu-Heng Yao; Fu-Guo Xie; Defu Bu; Hua Feng; Xinwu Cao; Hongzhou Wu; Wenxiong Li; Erlin Qiao; Giorgos Leloudas; Joseph P Anderson; Xinwen Shu; Dheeraj R. Pasham; Hu Zou; Matt Nicholl; Thomas Wevers; Tomas E. Muller-Bravo; Jing Wang; Jianyan Wei; Yu-Lei Qiu; Weijian Guo; Claudia P. Gutierrez; Mariusz Gromadzki; Cosimo Inserra; Lydia Makrygianni; Francesca Onori; Tanja Petrushevska; Diego Altamirano; Lluis Galbany; Miguel Perez-Torres; Ting-Wan Chen

doi:10.1126/sciadv.ady9068

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arXiv · 2511.12477

Detection of disk-jet co-precession in a tidal disruption event

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Abstract

Theories and simulations predict that intense spacetime curvature near black holes bends the trajectories of light and matter, driving disk and jet precession under relativistic torques. However, direct observational evidence of disk-jet co-precession remains elusive. Here, we report the most compelling case to date: a tidal disruption event (TDE) exhibiting unprecedented 19.6-day quasi-periodic variations in both X-rays and radio, with X-ray amplitudes exceeding an order of magnitude. The nearly synchronized X-ray and radio variations suggest a shared mechanism regulating the emission regions. We demonstrate that a disk-jet Lense-Thirring precession model successfully reproduces these variations while requiring a low-spin black hole. This study uncovers previously uncharted short-term radio variability in TDEs, highlights the transformative potential of high-cadence radio monitoring, and offers profound insights into disk-jet physics.

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Yanan Wang, Zikun Lin, Linhui Wu, Weihua Lei, Shuyuan Wei, Shuang-Nan Zhang, Long Ji, Santiago del Palacio, Ranieri D. Baldi, Yang Huang, Jifeng Liu, Bing Zhang, Aiyuan Yang, Rurong Chen, Yangwei Zhang, Ailing Wang, Lei Yang, Panos Charalampopoulos, David R. A. Williams-Baldwin, Zhu-Heng Yao, Fu-Guo Xie, Defu Bu, Hua Feng, Xinwu Cao, Hongzhou Wu, Wenxiong Li, Erlin Qiao, Giorgos Leloudas, Joseph P Anderson, Xinwen Shu, Dheeraj R. Pasham, Hu Zou, Matt Nicholl, Thomas Wevers, Tomas E. Muller-Bravo, Jing Wang, Jianyan Wei, Yu-Lei Qiu, Weijian Guo, Claudia P. Gutierrez, Mariusz Gromadzki, Cosimo Inserra, Lydia Makrygianni, Francesca Onori, Tanja Petrushevska, Diego Altamirano, Lluis Galbany, Miguel Perez-Torres, Ting-Wan Chen. 2025-11-16. Detection of disk-jet co-precession in a tidal disruption event. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady9068

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