arXiv subjects

Thomas Hong Tsun Wong

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Hong Tsun Wong.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Multi-Messenger Constraint on the Hubble Constant $H_0$ with Tidal Disruption Events

Tidal disruption events (TDEs), apart from producing luminous electromagnetic (EM) flares, can generate potentially detectable gravitational wave (GW) burst signals by future space-borne GW detectors. In this Letter, we propose a methodology to constrain the Hubble constant $H_0$ by incorporating the TDE parameters measured by EM observations (e.g., stellar mass, black hole (BH) mass and spin, and other orbital parameters) into the observed TDE GW waveforms. We argue that an accurate knowledge of the BH spin could help constrain the orbital inclination angle, hence alleviating the well-known distance-inclination degeneracy in GW waveform fitting. For individual TDEs, the precise redshift measurement of the host galaxies along with the luminosity distance $D_{\rm L}$ constrained by EM and GW signals would give a self-contained measurement of $H_0$ via Hubble's law, completely independent of any specific cosmological models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Revisiting the Rates and Demographics of Tidal Disruption Events: Effects of the Disk Formation Efficiency

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are valuable probes of the demographics of supermassive black holes as well as the dynamics and population of stars in the centers of galaxies. In this Letter, we focus on studying how the debris disk formation and circularization processes can impact the possibility of observing prompt flares in TDEs. First, we investigate how the efficiency of disk formation is determined by the key parameters, namely, the black hole mass $M_{BH}$, the stellar mass $m_\star$, and the orbital penetration parameter $β$ that quantifies how close the disrupted star would orbit around the black hole. Then we calculate the intrinsic differential TDE rate as a function of these three parameters. Combining these two results, we find that the rates of TDEs with prompt disk formation are significantly suppressed around lighter black holes, which provides a plausible explanation for why the observed TDE host black hole mass distribution peaks between $10^6$ and $10^7M_\odot$. Therefore, the consideration of the disk formation efficiency is crucial for recovering the intrinsic black hole demographics from TDEs. Furthermore, we find that the efficiency of the disk formation process also impacts the distributions of both stellar orbital penetration parameter and stellar mass observed in TDEs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Observable gravitational waves from tidal disruption events and their electromagnetic counterpart

We estimate the rate of tidal disruption events (TDEs) that will be detectable with future gravitational wave detectors as well as the most probable properties of these events and their possible electromagnetic counterpart. To this purpose we combine standard gravitational waves and electromagnetic results with detailed rates estimates. We find that the \emph{Laser Interferometer Space Antenna} (LISA) should not detect any TDEs, unless black holes (BHs) are typically embedded by a young stellar population which, in this situation, could lead up to few 10 events during the duration of the mission. If there are gravitational wave observations, these events should also be observable in the X-ray or the optical/UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which may open up the multi-messenger era for TDEs. The generation of detectors following LISA will at least yearly observe $10^4$ TDEs at cosmological distances, allowing to do population studies and constrain the black hole mass function. In all cases, most probable events should be around black holes with a mass such that the Keplerian frequency at the Schwarzschild radius is similar to the optimal frequency of the detector and with a large penetration factor.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Data-driven Reconstruction of the Late-time Cosmic Acceleration with f(T) Gravity

We use a combination of observational data in order to reconstruct the free function of f(T) gravity in a model-independent manner. Starting from the data-driven determined dark-energy equation-of-state parameter we are able to reconstruct the f(T) form. The obtained function is consistent with the standard ΛCDM cosmology within 1σ confidence level, however the best-fit value experiences oscillatory features. We parametrise it with a sinusoidal function with only one extra parameter comparing to ΛCDM paradigm, which is a small oscillatory deviation from it, close to the best-fit curve, and inside the 1σ reconstructed region. Similar oscillatory dark-energy scenarios are known to be in good agreement with observational data, nevertheless this is the first time that such a behavior is proposed for f(T) gravity. Finally, since the reconstruction procedure is completely model-independent, the obtained data-driven reconstructed f(T) form could release the tensions between ΛCDM estimations and local measurements, such as the H0 and σ8 ones.

astro-ph.CO↗