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We present the discovery with Keck of the extremely infrared (IR) luminoustransient AT 2017gbl, coincident with the Northern nucleus of the luminousinfrared galaxy (LIRG) IRAS 23436+5257. Our extensive multi-wavelengthfollow-up spans ~900 days, including photometry and spectroscopy in the opticaland IR, and (very long baseline interferometry) radio and X-ray observations.Radiative transfer modelling of the host galaxy spectral energy distributionand long-term pre-outburst variability in the mid-IR indicate the presence of ahitherto undetected dust obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). The opticaland near-IR spectra show broad 2000 km/s hydrogen, He I and O I emissionfeatures that decrease in flux over time. Radio imaging shows a fast evolvingcompact source of synchrotron emission spatially coincident with AT 2017gbl. Weinfer a lower limit for the radiated energy of 7.3 x 10^50 erg from the IRphotometry. An extremely energetic supernova would satisfy this budget, but isruled out by the radio counterpart evolution. Instead, we propose AT 2017gbl isrelated to an accretion event by the central supermassive black hole, where thespectral signatures originate in the AGN broad line region and the IRphotometry is consistent with re-radiation by polar dust. Given the fastevolution of AT 2017gbl, we deem a tidal disruption event (TDE) of a star amore plausible scenario than a dramatic change in the AGN accretion rate. Thismakes AT 2017gbl the third TDE candidate to be hosted by a LIRG, in contrast tothe so far considered TDE population discovered at optical wavelengths andhosted preferably by post-starburst galaxies.

AT 2017gbl: a dust obscured TDE candidate in a luminous infrared galaxy