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Description
We present the discovery of PS18kh, a tidal disruption event discovered at the center of SDSS J075654.53+341543.6 (d~322Mpc) by the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients. Our data set includes pre-discovery survey data from Pan-STARRS, the All-sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System as well as high-cadence, multiwavelength follow-up data from ground-based telescopes and Swift, spanning from 56 days before peak light until 75days after. The optical/UV emission from PS18kh is well-fit as a blackbody with temperatures ranging from T~12000K to T~25000K and it peaked at a luminosity of L~8.8x10^43^erg/s. PS18kh radiated E=(3.45+/-0.22)x10^50^erg over the period of observation, with (1.42+/-0.20)x10^50^erg being released during the rise to peak. Spectra of PS18kh show a changing, boxy/double-peaked H{alpha} emission feature, which becomes more prominent over time. We use models of non-axisymmetric accretion disks to describe the profile of the H{alpha} line and its evolution. We find that at early times the high accretion rate leads the disk to emit a wind which modifies the shape of the line profile and makes it bell-shaped. At late times, the wind becomes optically thin, allowing the non-axisymmetric perturbations to show up in the line profile. The line-emitting portion of the disk extends from r_in_~60r_g_ to an outer radius of r_out_~1400r_g_ and the perturbations can be represented either as an eccentricity in the outer rings of the disk or as a spiral arm in the inner disk.
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