arXiv subjects

Sitha K. Jagan

Publications and source records attributed to Sitha K. Jagan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A fast powerful X-ray transient from possible tidal disruption of a white dwarf

Stars captured by black holes (BHs) can be torn apart by strong tidal forces, producing electromagnetic flares. To date, more than 100 tidal disruption events (TDEs) have been observed, each involving invariably normal gaseous stars whose debris falls onto the BH, sustaining the flares over years. White dwarfs (WDs), which are the most prevalent compact stars and a million times denser--and therefore tougher--than gaseous stars, can only be disrupted by intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of 10^2--10^5 solar masses. WD-TDEs are considered to generate more powerful and short-lived flares, but their evidence has been lacking. Here we report observations of a fast and luminous X-ray transient EP250702a detected by Einstein Probe. Its one-day-long X-ray peak as luminous as 10^(47-49) erg/s showed strong recurrent flares with hard spectra extending to several tens of MeV gamma-rays, as detected by Fermi/GBM and Konus-Wind, indicating relativistic jet emission. The jet's X-ray dropped sharply from 3 x 10^49 erg/s to around 10^44 erg/s within 20 days (10 days in the source rest frame). These characteristics are inconsistent with any known transient phenomena other than a jetted-TDE evolving over an unprecedentedly short timescale, indicating the disruption of a WD by an IMBH. At late times, a new soft component progressively dominates the X-ray spectrum, exhibiting an extreme super-Eddington luminosity, which possibly originates from an accretion disc. WD-TDEs open a new window for investigating the elusive IMBHs and their surrounding stellar environments, and they are prime sources of gravitational waves in the band of space-based interferometers.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Multi-wavelength analysis of FSRQ B2 1348+30B: Constraints on the jet power

We present 14.5-year multi-wavelength analysis of flat-spectrum radio quasar B2 1348+30B using Swift-UVOT, Swift-XRT, and Fermi-LAT observations. In the gamma-ray band, the 3 day bin lightcurve reveals two major flaring events on 2010-09-19 (55458 MJD) and 2022-05-26 (59725 MJD) detected at flux levels $(2.5\pm 0.5) \times 10^{-7}\,\rm{ph\,cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$ and $(5.2\pm 0.6) \times 10^{-7}\,\rm{ph\,cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$. The Bayesian block analysis of the flares suggested the variability timescale to be $\leq$ 3\,day. To study the dynamic nature of the source, multi-wavelength spectrum was obtained for three flux states which includes the two flaring state and a relative low state. The $γ$-ray spectra of the source in all the states are well fitted by a power-law model with maximum photon energy < 20 GeV. In X-ray, a power-law model can explain the flaring state spectra while a broken power-law with extremely hard high energy component was required to model the low flux state. This indicates the presence of the low energy cutoff in the Compton spectral component. A simple one-zone leptonic model involving synchrotron, synchrotron self Compton and external Compton mechanism can successfully reproduce the broad-band spectral energy distribution of all the flux states. The model parameters suggest significant increase in the jet Lorentz factor during the high flux states. Further, the best fit parameters are used to constrain the minimum energy of the emitting electron distribution from the hard high energy spectrum of the low flux state. This analysis was extended to draw limits on the kinetic power of the blazar jet and was compared with the Eddington luminosity of the central black hole.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Convex X-ray Spectra of PKS 2155-304 and Constraints on the Minimum Electron Energy

The convex (concave upward) high-energy X-ray spectra of the blazar PKS\,2155-304, observed by \emph{XMM-Newton}, is interpreted as the signature of sub-dominant inverse Compton emission. The spectra can be well fitted by a superposition of two power-law contributions which imitate the emission due to synchrotron and inverse Compton processes. The methodology adopted enables us to constrain the photon energy down to a level where inverse Compton emission begins to contribute. We show that this information supplemented with knowledge of the jet Doppler factor and magnetic field strength can be used to constrain the low-energy cutoff $γ_{\rm min}m_{\rm e} c^2$ of the radiating electron distribution and the kinetic power $P_{\rm j}$ of the jet. We deduce these quantities through a statistical fitting of the broadband spectral energy distribution of PKS\,2155-304 assuming synchrotron and synchrotron self Compton emission mechanisms. Our results favour a minimum Lorentz factor for the non-thermal electron distribution of $γ_{\rm min} \gtrsim 60$, with a preference for a value around $γ_{\rm min} \simeq 330$. The required kinetic jet power is of the order of $P_{\rm j} \sim 3\times 10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in case of a heavy, electron-proton dominated jet, and could be up to an order of magnitude less in case of a light, electron-positron dominated jet. When put in context, our best fit parameters support the X-ray emitting part of blazar jets to be dominated by an electron-proton rather than an electron-positron composition.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Establishing the Spectral Turnover of Blazar PKS 2155-304 as an Outcome of Radiative Losses

The broad band optical/UV and X-ray spectra of blazars have been often modeled as synchrotron component arising from a broken power-law distribution of electrons. A broken power-law distribution is expected, since the high energy electrons undergo radiative losses effectively. The change in the energy index should then be approximately 1 and corresponds to a spectral index difference of 0.5. However, one of the long outstanding problems has been that the observed index change is significantly different. On the other hand, recent high quality observations of blazars suggest that their local spectra may not be a power-law, instead have a slight curvature and often represented by a log parabola model. Using XMM-Newton observations spanning over 12 years for the BL Lac PKS 2155-304, we show that the optical/UV and X-ray spectra can be well represented by a broken log parabola model. Further, we show that such a spectrum can indicate the energy dependence of the electron escape timescale from the main acceleration zone. This novel approach, besides addressing the observed difference in the photon spectral indices, also tries to explain the spectral turn over in far UV/soft X-rays as a result of the radiative losses.

astro-ph.HE↗