Tidal disruption event

Simulation of a star being disrupted by a supermassive black hole during a tidal disruption event.[1]

A tidal disruption event (TDE) is a transient astronomical source produced when a star passes so close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that it is pulled apart by the black hole's tidal force.[2][3] The star undergoes spaghettification, producing a tidal stream of material that loops around the black hole. Some portion of the stellar material is captured into orbit, forming an accretion disk around the black hole, which emits electromagnetic radiation. In a small fraction of TDEs, a relativistic jet is also produced. As the material in the disk is gradually consumed by the black hole, the TDE fades over several months or years.

TDEs were predicted in the 1970s and first observed in the 1990s. Over a hundred have since been observed, with detections at optical, infrared, radio and X-ray wavelengths. Sometimes a star can survive the encounter with an SMBH, leaving a remnant; those events are termed partial TDEs.[4][5]

  1. ^ Price, Daniel J.; Liptai, David; Mandel, Ilya; Shepherd, Joanna; Lodato, Giuseppe; Levin, Yuri (2024). "Eddington Envelopes: The Fate of Stars on Parabolic Orbits Tidally Disrupted by Supermassive Black Holes". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 971 (2): L46. arXiv:2404.09381. Bibcode:2024ApJ...971L..46P. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad6862. ISSN 2041-8205.
  2. ^ "Astronomers See a Massive Black Hole Tear a Star Apart". Universe today. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Tidal Disruption of a Star By a Massive Black Hole". Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  4. ^ Guillochon, James; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico (2013-04-10). "Hydrodynamical Simulations to Determine the Feeding Rate of Black Holes by the Tidal Disruption of Stars: The Importance of the Impact Parameter and Stellar Structure". The Astrophysical Journal. 767 (1): 25. arXiv:1206.2350. Bibcode:2013ApJ...767...25G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/25. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 118900779.
  5. ^ Ryu, Taeho; Krolik, Julian; Piran, Tsvi; Noble, Scott C. (2020-12-01). "Tidal Disruptions of Main-sequence Stars. III. Stellar Mass Dependence of the Character of Partial Disruptions". The Astrophysical Journal. 904 (2): 100. arXiv:2001.03503. Bibcode:2020ApJ...904..100R. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abb3ce. ISSN 0004-637X.