Abstract
We report on multiwavelength observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate eRASSt J074426.3 + 291606 (J0744), located in the nucleus of a previously quiescent galaxy at z = 0.0396. J0744 was first detected as a new, ultra-soft X-ray source (photon index similar to 4) during the second SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS2), where it had brightened in the 0.3-2 keV band by a factor of more than similar to 160 relative to an archival 3 sigma upper limit inferred from a serendipitous Chandra pointing in 2011. The transient was also independently found in the optical by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), with the eRASS2 detection occurring only similar to 20 d after the peak optical brightness, suggesting that the accretion disc formed promptly in this TDE. Continued X-ray monitoring over the following similar to 400 d by eROSITA, NICER XTI and Swift XRT showed a net decline by a factor of similar to 100, albeit with large amplitude X-ray variability where the system fades, and then rebrightens, in the 0.3-2 keV band by a factor similar to 50 during an 80-d period. Contemporaneous Swift UVOT observations during this extreme X-ray variability reveal a relatively smooth decline, which persists over similar to 400 d post-optical peak. The peak observed optical luminosity (absolute g-band magnitude similar to-16.8 mag) from this transient makes J0744 the faintest optically detected TDE observed to date. However, contrasting the known set of 'faint and fast' TDEs, the optical emission from J0744 decays slowly (exponential decay time-scale similar to 120 d), making J0744 the first member of a potential new class of 'faint and slow' TDEs.