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eRASSt J074426.3+291606: prompt accretion disc formation in a 'faint and slow' tidal disruption event

We report on multi-wavelength 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 $\sim 4$) 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 $\sim$160 relative to an archival 3$σ$ upper limit inferred from a serendipitous Chandra pointing in 2011. The transient was also independently found in the optical by the Zwicky Transient Factory (ZTF), with the eRASS2 detection occurring only $\sim$20 days after the peak optical brightness, suggesting that the accretion disc formed promptly in this TDE. Continued X-ray monitoring over the following $\sim$400 days by eROSITA, NICER XTI and Swift XRT showed a net decline by a factor of $\sim$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 $\sim$50 during an 80 day period. Contemporaneous Swift UVOT observations during this extreme X-ray variability reveal a relatively smooth decline, which persists over $\sim$400 days post-optical peak. The peak observed optical luminosity (absolute $g$-band magnitude $\sim -16.8$ 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 timescale $\sim$120~days), making J0744 the first member of a potential new class of `faint and slow' TDEs.