The Prospects of Observing Tidal Disruption Events with the LSST. (arXiv:1906.08235v1 [astro-ph.HE])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bricman_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">Katja Bricman</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gomboc_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Andreja Gomboc</a>
The upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will observe 18 000
deg$^2$ of the Southern sky and is expected to discover thousands of transients
every night due to its large coverage of the sky and its observing strategy. In
this work we address the prospects of the LSST in discovering Tidal Disruption
Events (TDEs) and in probing the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass
distribution in the Universe. We used the LSST simulation framework and defined
TDE catalogs on 20 fields of 20.25 deg$^2$ size. TDE properties were defined by
randomly chosen impact factors and SMBH masses drawn from six different mass
distributions. Observations of TDEs in 10 years of LSST operations were
simulated by querying the simulated observing strategy database minion_1016.
Based on the results of our simulations we estimate that the LSST should
discover between 35 000 and 80 000 TDEs in 10 years of operations, depending on
the assumed SMBH mass distribution. We also find that probing the SMBH mass
distribution with TDE observations will not be straightforward due to the fact
that TDEs caused by low mass black holes ($10^ 5 M_odot$) are expected to be
less luminous and shorter than TDEs by heavier SMBHs ($> 10^6 M_odot$), and
therefore will mostly be missed by the irregular LSST cadence minion_1016.
The upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will observe 18 000
deg$^2$ of the Southern sky and is expected to discover thousands of transients
every night due to its large coverage of the sky and its observing strategy. In
this work we address the prospects of the LSST in discovering Tidal Disruption
Events (TDEs) and in probing the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass
distribution in the Universe. We used the LSST simulation framework and defined
TDE catalogs on 20 fields of 20.25 deg$^2$ size. TDE properties were defined by
randomly chosen impact factors and SMBH masses drawn from six different mass
distributions. Observations of TDEs in 10 years of LSST operations were
simulated by querying the simulated observing strategy database minion_1016.
Based on the results of our simulations we estimate that the LSST should
discover between 35 000 and 80 000 TDEs in 10 years of operations, depending on
the assumed SMBH mass distribution. We also find that probing the SMBH mass
distribution with TDE observations will not be straightforward due to the fact
that TDEs caused by low mass black holes ($10^ 5 M_odot$) are expected to be
less luminous and shorter than TDEs by heavier SMBHs ($> 10^6 M_odot$), and
therefore will mostly be missed by the irregular LSST cadence minion_1016.
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