Title: Are Tidal Disruption Events a Source of Astrophysical VHE Neutrinos?
Abstract: When an unlucky star wanders close enough to a central massive black hole, it will be shredded apart by tidal forces, and accreted by the black hole, resulting in a luminous flare of radiation from the nucleus of a galaxy. Â In my talk, I will review the recent claims that tidal disruption events (TDEs) are potential sources of astrophysical very high energy (VHE) neutrinos. Â First I will explain how we have become adept at discovering and characterizing TDEs with ground-based optical surveys, and how we will do even better with help from wide-field ultraviolet telescopes in the near future. Â Then I will present the evidence that some VHE neutrinos detected by IceCube may be associated with previously identified TDEs, and perhaps accreting supermassive black holes in general. Â I will conclude with how we can test these claims with future multi-messenger observing campaigns.