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Main Authors: Zhou, Zihan, Tomaselli, Giovanni Maria, Martínez-Rodríguez, Irvin, Li, Jingping
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16025
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author Zhou, Zihan
Tomaselli, Giovanni Maria
Martínez-Rodríguez, Irvin
Li, Jingping
author_facet Zhou, Zihan
Tomaselli, Giovanni Maria
Martínez-Rodríguez, Irvin
Li, Jingping
contents Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when stars pass close enough to supermassive black holes to be torn apart by tidal forces. Traditionally, these events are studied with computationally intensive hydrodynamical simulations. In this paper, we present a fast, physically motivated two-stage model for TDEs. In the first stage, we model the star's tidal deformation using linear stellar perturbation theory, treating the star as a collection of driven harmonic oscillators. When the tidal energy exceeds a fraction $γ$ of the star's gravitational binding energy (with $γ\sim \mathcal O(1)$), we transition to the second stage, where we model the disrupted material as free particles. The parameter $γ$ is determined with a one-time calibration to the critical impact parameter obtained in hydrodynamical simulations. This method enables fast computation of the energy distribution ${\rm d} M/{\rm d}E$ and fallback rate ${\rm d} M/{\rm d} T$, while offering physical insight into the disruption process. We apply our model to MESA-generated profiles of middle-age main-sequence stars. Our code is available on GitHub.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_16025
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Modeling Tidal Disruptions with Dynamical Tides
Zhou, Zihan
Tomaselli, Giovanni Maria
Martínez-Rodríguez, Irvin
Li, Jingping
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when stars pass close enough to supermassive black holes to be torn apart by tidal forces. Traditionally, these events are studied with computationally intensive hydrodynamical simulations. In this paper, we present a fast, physically motivated two-stage model for TDEs. In the first stage, we model the star's tidal deformation using linear stellar perturbation theory, treating the star as a collection of driven harmonic oscillators. When the tidal energy exceeds a fraction $γ$ of the star's gravitational binding energy (with $γ\sim \mathcal O(1)$), we transition to the second stage, where we model the disrupted material as free particles. The parameter $γ$ is determined with a one-time calibration to the critical impact parameter obtained in hydrodynamical simulations. This method enables fast computation of the energy distribution ${\rm d} M/{\rm d}E$ and fallback rate ${\rm d} M/{\rm d} T$, while offering physical insight into the disruption process. We apply our model to MESA-generated profiles of middle-age main-sequence stars. Our code is available on GitHub.
title Modeling Tidal Disruptions with Dynamical Tides
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16025