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Main Authors: Fangyi, Hu, Price, Daniel J., Mandel, Ilya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03210
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author Fangyi
Hu
Price, Daniel J.
Mandel, Ilya
author_facet Fangyi
Hu
Price, Daniel J.
Mandel, Ilya
contents Stars approaching supermassive black holes can be tidally disrupted. Despite being expected to emit X-rays, TDEs have been largely observed in optical bands, which is poorly understood. In this Letter, we simulate the tidal disruption of a $1~M_\odot$ main sequence star on an eccentric ($e=0.95$) orbit with a periapsis distance one or five times smaller than the tidal radius ($β= 1$ or $5$) using general relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics. We follow the simulation for up to a year post-disruption. We show that accretion disks in eccentric TDEs are masked by unbound material outflowing at $\sim10,000~$km/s. Assuming electron scattering opacity, this material would be visible as a $\sim100~$au photosphere at $\sim10^4~$K, in line with observations of candidate TDEs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_03210
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optical Appearance of Eccentric Tidal Disruption Events
Fangyi
Hu
Price, Daniel J.
Mandel, Ilya
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Stars approaching supermassive black holes can be tidally disrupted. Despite being expected to emit X-rays, TDEs have been largely observed in optical bands, which is poorly understood. In this Letter, we simulate the tidal disruption of a $1~M_\odot$ main sequence star on an eccentric ($e=0.95$) orbit with a periapsis distance one or five times smaller than the tidal radius ($β= 1$ or $5$) using general relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics. We follow the simulation for up to a year post-disruption. We show that accretion disks in eccentric TDEs are masked by unbound material outflowing at $\sim10,000~$km/s. Assuming electron scattering opacity, this material would be visible as a $\sim100~$au photosphere at $\sim10^4~$K, in line with observations of candidate TDEs.
title Optical Appearance of Eccentric Tidal Disruption Events
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03210