Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution

Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are recurring bursts of soft X-ray emission from supermassive black holes, which a growing class of models explains via extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs). QPEs exhibit blackbody-like emission with significant temperature evolution, but the minimal information conte...

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Autores: Chakraborty, Joheen, Kosec, Peter, Kara, Erin, Miniutti, Giovanni, Arcodia, Riccardo, Behar, Ehud, Giustini, Margherita, Hernández-García, Lorena, Masterson, Megan, Quintin, E.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/412672
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/412672
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Supermassive black holes
X-ray astronomy
High energy astrophysics
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spelling Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic EvolutionChakraborty, JoheenKosec, PeterKara, ErinMiniutti, GiovanniArcodia, RiccardoBehar, EhudGiustini, MargheritaHernández-García, LorenaMasterson, MeganQuintin, E.Supermassive black holesX-ray astronomyHigh energy astrophysicsQuasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are recurring bursts of soft X-ray emission from supermassive black holes, which a growing class of models explains via extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs). QPEs exhibit blackbody-like emission with significant temperature evolution, but the minimal information content of their almost pure-thermal spectra has limited physical constraints. Here we study the recently discovered QPEs in ZTF19acnskyy (“Ansky”), which show absorption-like features evolving dramatically within eruptions and correlating strongly with continuum temperature and luminosity, further probing the conditions underlying the emission surface. The absorption features are well described by dense ionized plasma of column density NH ≳ 1021 cm−2, blueshift 0.06 ≲ v/c ≲ 0.4, and either collisional or photoionization equilibrium. With high-resolution spectra, we also detect ionized blueshifted emission lines suggesting a nitrogen overabundance of solar. We interpret our results with orbiter–disk collisions in an EMRI system, in which each impact drives a shock that locally heats the disk and expels X-ray-emitting debris undergoing radiation-pressure-driven homologous expansion. We explore an analytical toy model that links the rapid change in absorption lines to the evolution of the ionization parameter and the photosphere radius, and we suggest that ∼10−3 M⊙ ejected per eruption with expansion velocities up to can reproduce the absorption features. With these assumptions, we show that a P Cygni profile in a spherical expansion geometry qualitatively matches the observed line profiles. Our work takes a first step toward extending existing physical models for QPEs to address their implications for spectral line formation.G.M. acknowledges support by grant PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103. R.A. was supported by NASA through NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51499.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. C.R. acknowledges support from Fondecyt Regular grant 1230345, ANID BASAL project FB210003, and the China-Chile joint research fund.Peer reviewedAmerican Astronomical SocietyIOP PublishingMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)NASASpace Telescope Science Institute (US)Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]202620262025info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/412672reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglés#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-115325GB-C31The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb972https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb972Síinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/4126722026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
title Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
spellingShingle Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
Chakraborty, Joheen
Supermassive black holes
X-ray astronomy
High energy astrophysics
title_short Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
title_full Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
title_fullStr Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
title_full_unstemmed Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
title_sort Rapidly Varying Ionization Features in a Quasi-periodic Eruption: A Homologous Expansion Model for the Spectroscopic Evolution
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Chakraborty, Joheen
Kosec, Peter
Kara, Erin
Miniutti, Giovanni
Arcodia, Riccardo
Behar, Ehud
Giustini, Margherita
Hernández-García, Lorena
Masterson, Megan
Quintin, E.
author Chakraborty, Joheen
author_facet Chakraborty, Joheen
Kosec, Peter
Kara, Erin
Miniutti, Giovanni
Arcodia, Riccardo
Behar, Ehud
Giustini, Margherita
Hernández-García, Lorena
Masterson, Megan
Quintin, E.
author_role author
author2 Kosec, Peter
Kara, Erin
Miniutti, Giovanni
Arcodia, Riccardo
Behar, Ehud
Giustini, Margherita
Hernández-García, Lorena
Masterson, Megan
Quintin, E.
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
NASA
Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Supermassive black holes
X-ray astronomy
High energy astrophysics
topic Supermassive black holes
X-ray astronomy
High energy astrophysics
description Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are recurring bursts of soft X-ray emission from supermassive black holes, which a growing class of models explains via extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs). QPEs exhibit blackbody-like emission with significant temperature evolution, but the minimal information content of their almost pure-thermal spectra has limited physical constraints. Here we study the recently discovered QPEs in ZTF19acnskyy (“Ansky”), which show absorption-like features evolving dramatically within eruptions and correlating strongly with continuum temperature and luminosity, further probing the conditions underlying the emission surface. The absorption features are well described by dense ionized plasma of column density NH ≳ 1021 cm−2, blueshift 0.06 ≲ v/c ≲ 0.4, and either collisional or photoionization equilibrium. With high-resolution spectra, we also detect ionized blueshifted emission lines suggesting a nitrogen overabundance of solar. We interpret our results with orbiter–disk collisions in an EMRI system, in which each impact drives a shock that locally heats the disk and expels X-ray-emitting debris undergoing radiation-pressure-driven homologous expansion. We explore an analytical toy model that links the rapid change in absorption lines to the evolution of the ionization parameter and the photosphere radius, and we suggest that ∼10−3 M⊙ ejected per eruption with expansion velocities up to can reproduce the absorption features. With these assumptions, we show that a P Cygni profile in a spherical expansion geometry qualitatively matches the observed line profiles. Our work takes a first step toward extending existing physical models for QPEs to address their implications for spectral line formation.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2026
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Publisher's version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/412672
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/412672
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-115325GB-C31
The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb972
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb972
Sí
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv American Astronomical Society
IOP Publishing
publisher.none.fl_str_mv American Astronomical Society
IOP Publishing
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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