Numerical Studies on the Radio Afterglows in Tidal Disruption Events: Forward Shock
潮汐撕裂事件射电余辉的数值研究:前向激波
Recent long-term radio monitoring of tidal disruption events (TDEs) suggests that radio afterglows are common. Most studies argue that these afterglows may arise from forward shocks (FS) produced by the interaction between the TDE outflow and the hot, diffuse circumnuclear medium (CNM). Current theoretical models do not model the evolution of relativistic electrons in space, which introduces uncertainties. Here, we conducted hydrodynamic simulations to study the spatial evolution of relativistic electrons, and calculated the synchrotron spectra via radiative transfer. We focus on the FS scenario with non-relativistic outflows, and various parameters of the outflow and CNM are explored. A moderate outflow with kinetic energy of several 10<SUP>50</SUP> erg in a Galactic center─like CNM can produce mJy-level radio afterglows at a distance of 100 Mpc. The self-absorption frequency exhibits a slow decline at early times and a rapid decrease at late times. We derived the temporal evolution of the high-frequency radio flux, revealing its characteristic rise and decline pattern. We also find that (1) the radio spectra for narrow outflows are clearly anisotropic along different sight lines; (2) the FS parameters inferred from radio spectra using conventional analytical formulas deviate significantly from those in simulations, in which the inferred shock radii are half of those from simulations, and the inferred energies are an order of magnitude lower.
展开 ▾首次在数值模拟中追踪相对论电子空间演化并计算全辐射转移谱,发现小张角下赤道方向谱呈“平顶”特征;系统评估能均分方法偏差,激波半径低估约2倍、能量低估约9–10倍,对参数估计具有重要修正意义。
近年来射电监测发现近半数光学选的 TDE 在数百天后展现射电辐射,通常解释为非相对论外流与核周热气体作用产生的前向激波(Alexander+ 2016;Cendes+ 2024)。但既往模型未追踪相对论电子的空间演化,本文通过数值模拟揭示谱的各向异性,并指出传统能均分方法(Barniol Duran+ 2013)反演激波参数存在系统偏差。未来,多频射电监测可结合这些模拟结果限制视线方向与外流张角,更复杂的核周介质结构(如密度指数突变)及弓形激波过程(Mou & Shu 2025)将是区分辐射机制的关键方向。修正这些偏差也将提升对外流动能和核周介质密度的估算可靠性。
预印本 2025-10-16 · 接收 2026-05-26 · 刊出 2026-07-15 · 收录 2026-07-22