A Unified Timescale Relation for Quasi-Periodic Eruptions and Repeated Nuclear Transients
Abstract
Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) and recurrent nuclear transients (RNTs) exhibit recurrent high-amplitude flares from galactic nuclei, yet their characteristic timescales remain poorly understood. In this work, we compile a sample of these systems and investigate empirical scaling relations between flare timescales and black hole masses. We find that the recurrence timescale exhibits a positive but highly scattered dependence on black hole mass in the combined QPE and RNT sample, approximately following trec∝ MBH1.19+0.52−0.47 with an intrinsic scatter of 0.95 dex. Remarkably, we uncover a tight nearly linear relation between recurrence time and flare timescale for QPEs and RNTs, described by trec∝ trise1.00±0.07 with an intrinsic scatter of 0.29 dex. This relation extends across timescales from hours for QPEs to months and years for nuclear transients. We further find that QPEs and RNTs approximately follow a common empirical relation between recurrence time and flare rise time, although the physical origin of this relation remains uncertain. Our findings reveal a common phenomenological timescale link across RNTs, providing a practical framework for characterizing their temporal behavior.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{huang2026unified,
title = {{A Unified Timescale Relation for Quasi-Periodic Eruptions and Repeated Nuclear Transients}},
author = {Shifeng Huang and Tinggui Wang and Ning Jiang and Yibo Wang and Zhenfeng Sheng and Tian-Yu Xia and Jiazheng Zhu and Zheyu Lin and Jie Lin and Ji-an Jiang and Kenta Taguchi and Keiichi Maeda},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.08737},
eprint = {2609.08737},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08737},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Unified Timescale Relation for Quasi-Periodic Eruptions and Repeated Nuclear Transients
AU - Shifeng Huang
AU - Tinggui Wang
AU - Ning Jiang
AU - Yibo Wang
AU - Zhenfeng Sheng
AU - Tian-Yu Xia
AU - Jiazheng Zhu
AU - Zheyu Lin
AU - Jie Lin
AU - Ji-an Jiang
AU - Kenta Taguchi
AU - Keiichi Maeda
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.08737
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08737
AB - Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) and recurrent nuclear transients (RNTs) exhibit recurrent high-amplitude flares from galactic nuclei, yet their characteristic timescales remain poorly understood. In this work, we compile a sample of these systems and investigate empirical scaling relations between flare timescales and black hole masses. We find that the recurrence timescale exhibits a positive but highly scattered dependence on black hole mass in the combined QPE and RNT sample, approximately following t_rec∝ M_BH^1.19^+0.52_−0.47 with an intrinsic scatter of 0.95 dex. Remarkably, we uncover a tight nearly linear relation between recurrence time and flare timescale for QPEs and RNTs, described by t_rec∝ t_rise^1.00±0.07 with an intrinsic scatter of 0.29 dex. This relation extends across timescales from hours for QPEs to months and years for nuclear transients. We further find that QPEs and RNTs approximately follow a common empirical relation between recurrence time and flare rise time, although the physical origin of this relation remains uncertain. Our findings reveal a common phenomenological timescale link across RNTs, providing a practical framework for characterizing their temporal behavior.
ER -