The properties of GSN 069 accretion disk from a joint X-ray and UV spectral analysis: stress-testing quasi-periodic eruption models

Abstract: We present an analysis of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and XMM-Newton data of the tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate and quasi-periodic eruption (QPE) source GSN 069. Using ultraviolet (UV) and optical images at HST resolution, we show that GSN 069's emission consists of a point source superimposed on a diffuse stellar component. The latter accounts for $\leq 5\%$ of the UV emission in the inner 0.5"$\times$0.5" region, while the luminosity of the former cannot be attributed to stars. Analyzing the 2014/2018 \hst UV spectra, we show that to leading order the intrinsic spectral shape is $\nu\,L_{\nu}\propto\nu^{4/3}$, with $\sim10\%$ far UV flux variability between epochs. The contemporaneous X-ray and UV spectra can be modeled self-consistently in a thin disk framework. At observed epochs, the disk had an outer radius ($R_{\rm out}$) of $\mathcal{O}(10^3R_{\rm g})$, showing both cooling and expansion over four years. Incorporating relativistic effects via numerical ray tracing, we constrain the disk inclination angle ($i$) to be $30^\circ\,\lesssim\,i\,\lesssim\,65^\circ$ and identify a narrow region of spin-inclination parameter space that describes the observations. These findings confirm that GSN 069 hosts a compact, viscously expanding accretion disk likely formed after a TDE. Implications for QPE models are: (i) No published disk instability model can explain the disk's stability in 2014 (no QPEs) and its instability in 2018 (QPEs present); (ii) While the disk size in 2018 allows for orbiter/disk interactions to produce QPEs, in 2014 the disk was already sufficiently extended, yet no QPEs were present. These findings pose challenges to existing QPE models.