Accuracy of ultraviolet-continuum bolometric luminosity estimates

Determine whether the bolometric luminosity inferred from the ultraviolet continuum of TDE 2025aarm more accurately represents the true emitted luminosity than the luminosity inferred from single-temperature blackbody fits to ultraviolet and optical photometry.

Background

The far-ultraviolet-to-infrared spectral energy distribution of TDE 2025aarm is not well described by a single-temperature blackbody. A blackbody fit to near-ultraviolet and optical photometry underestimates the inferred bolometric luminosity by approximately a factor of nine, while a blackbody fit to the ultraviolet continuum gives a substantially higher luminosity.

Because the source spectrum in the extreme ultraviolet is unobserved and the ultraviolet-continuum fit may itself omit emission at optical and infrared wavelengths, the paper does not establish which estimate is closest to the true bolometric luminosity. The authors identify future observations of a possible dust echo as a way to constrain the total emitted energy and test the competing estimates.

References

Additionally, future observations of a potential dust echo in TDE\,2025aarm would help to place constraints on the total emitted energy and determine whether our estimate for the bolometric luminosity predicted from the UV continuum is a better representation of the true source luminosity.

— First Pre-peak Ultraviolet Spectrum of a Tidal Disruption Event: A Fast Outflow Revealed Prior to Maximum Light in TDE2025aarm  (2609.28460 - Hammerstein et al., 23 Sep 2026) in Section 5.4, “SED Shape”