The past and future power of the NOT to study tidal disruption events and their infrared echoes

The study of tidal disruption events (TDEs) presents a new opportunity to investigate the nuclear
regions of galaxies and the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) therein. The luminous outburst
produced by the accretion of a star onto a SMBH heats nearby interstellar dust, which then re-
radiates this energy producing a so-called infrared (IR) echo. Observations of IR echoes, and the
outbursts which cause them, can reveal the geometry and quantity of the surrounding dust, as
well as the intrinsic energy released by the TDEs themselves, as the dust efficiently absorbs and
re-emits UV photons that would otherwise remain unobserved.

The recent emergence of the field of study of optical TDEs over the past decade has also led to the
discovery of associated IR echoes, enabling the study of dust in the nuclear regions of TDE host
galaxies. Additionally, the recent discoveries of particularly long lasting and luminous IR echoes
in the heavily obscured nuclei of luminous infrared galaxies has revealed the presence of TDEs
that could never be discovered through optical or UV observations alone. Here we present our
use of the IR observing capabilities of the NOT+NOTCam to systematically discover and follow
IR echoes from TDEs. Furthermore, we describe the exciting future capabilities of the NTE instru-
ment to continue this work and how its simultaneous coverage of the optical and IR range will be
especially well suited to very efficiently characterise the spectral energy distribution of TDEs and
their associated IR echoes.