High-cadence observations of galactic nuclei by the future two-band UV-photometry mission QUVIK

Le résumé fourni par la source

The Quick Ultra-VIolet Kilonova surveyor (QUVIK), a two-band UV space telescope approved for funding as a Czech national science and technology mission, will focus on detecting early UV light of kilonovae (Werner et al., 2024). In addition, it will study the UV emission of stars and stellar systems (Krtička et al., 2024) as well as the intense and variable emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) or galactic nuclei activated by tidal disruption events (Zajaček et al., 2024). In this contribution, we describe the role of this small ($\sim 30$-cm diameter) UV telescope for studying bright, nearby AGN. With its NUV and FUV bands, the telescope will perform high-cadence ($\sim 0.1$-$1$ day) two-band photometric monitoring of nearby AGN ($z<1$), which will allow us to probe accretion disk sizes/temperature profiles via photometric reverberation mapping. Thanks to its versatility, QUVIK will be able to perform a moderately fast repointing ($<20$ min) to target candidates for tidal disruption events (TDEs). Early detection of the UV emission following a TDE optical flare, in combination with the subsequent two-band UV monitoring performed simultaneously with other observatories, will enable us to infer the time delay (or its lack of) between the optical, UV, and X-ray emission. In combination with theoretical models, it will be possible to shed more light on the origin of the UV/optical emission of TDEs. Furthermore, the two-band monitoring of nuclear transients will be beneficial in distinguishing between TDEs (nearly constant blue colour) and supernovae (progressive reddening) in the era of intensive wide-field surveys.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.