First Pre-peak Ultraviolet Spectrum of a Tidal Disruption Event: A Fast Outflow Revealed Prior to Maximum Light in TDE2025aarm

Erica Hammerstein; Ryan Chornock; Jean Somalwar; Raffaella Margutti; Brenna Mockler; Olivia Aspegren; Itai Sfaradi; Natalie LeBaron; Jonathan Carney; Alexei V. Filippenko; A. J. Nayana; Igor Andreoni; Thomas Brink; Peter J. Brown; Adam J. Burgasser; S. Bradley Cenko; Suvi Gezari; Xiaoshan Huang; Mansi M. Kasliwal; Jon M. Miller; Sasha Mintz; Sam Rose; Peter Senchyna; Joshua D. Simon; Emma Softich; Robert Stein; Yuhan Yao; WeiKang Zheng; Richard Dekany; Matthew J. Graham; Russ R. Laher; Josiah Purdum; Ben Rusholme; Jesper Sollerman; Stefan van der Walt

arXiv · 2609.28460

First Pre-peak Ultraviolet Spectrum of a Tidal Disruption Event: A Fast Outflow Revealed Prior to Maximum Light in TDE2025aarm

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Abstract

The tidal disruption and eventual accretion of a star by a massive black hole can lead to the launching of outflows and winds that encode important information about the tidal disruption and accretion processes. However, little is known about the existence and behavior of these outflows before optical light-curve peak, when processes such as stream-stream collisions and disk formation may be important. Here, we present the first pre-peak ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of a tidal disruption event (TDE), obtained $\sim 20$ days before optical maximum light of the nearby (redshift $z=0.0137$) TDE2025aarm, along with quasi-simultaneous infrared (IR) through X-ray observations. Our HST/STIS spectrum shows strong evidence for an early-time outflow through broad near-UV (NUV) and far-UV (FUV) absorption lines blueshifted by $\sim$10,000 km s$^{-1}$, including two new UV broad absorption features not yet identified in a TDE. We find that the FUV--IR continuum deviates significantly from a blackbody ($f_λ\propto λ^{-3.08}$), which we interpret as a signature of reprocessing through the outflow. This deviation implies that the bolometric luminosity in optical TDEs may be underestimated by a significant factor ($\sim$9 in this case) when inferred from single-temperature blackbody fits to NUV--optical photometry alone. This work further confirms that TDEs are capable of launching fast outflows at very early times and emphasizes the importance of prompt FUV spectroscopic observations of TDEs that can capture the full continuum emission and energetics.

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Erica Hammerstein, Ryan Chornock, Jean Somalwar, Raffaella Margutti, Brenna Mockler, Olivia Aspegren, Itai Sfaradi, Natalie LeBaron, Jonathan Carney, Alexei V. Filippenko, A. J. Nayana, Igor Andreoni, Thomas Brink, Peter J. Brown, Adam J. Burgasser, S. Bradley Cenko, Suvi Gezari, Xiaoshan Huang, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Jon M. Miller, Sasha Mintz, Sam Rose, Peter Senchyna, Joshua D. Simon, Emma Softich, Robert Stein, Yuhan Yao, WeiKang Zheng, Richard Dekany, Matthew J. Graham, Russ R. Laher, Josiah Purdum, Ben Rusholme, Jesper Sollerman, Stefan van der Walt. 2026-09-23. First Pre-peak Ultraviolet Spectrum of a Tidal Disruption Event: A Fast Outflow Revealed Prior to Maximum Light in TDE2025aarm. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28460

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