Tootfinder

A systematically-selected sample of luminous, long-duration, ambiguous nuclear transients
P. Wiseman, R. D. Williams, I. Arcavi, L. Galbany, M. J. Graham, S. H\"onig, M. Newsome, B. Subrayan, M. Sullivan, Y. Wang, D. Ili\'c, M. Nicholl, S. Oates, T. Petrushevska, K. W. Smith
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.11552

A systematically-selected sample of luminous, long-duration, ambiguous nuclear transients
We present a search for luminous, long-duration ambiguous nuclear transients (ANTs) similar to the unprecedented discovery of the extreme, ambiguous event AT2021lwx with a $>150$ d rise time and luminosity $10^{45.7}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We use the Lasair transient broker to search Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) data for transients lasting more than one year and exhibiting smooth declines. Our search returns 59 events, seven of which we classify as ANTs assumed to be driven by accretion onto superma…