Tidal Disruption Event Demographics in Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Over Cosmic Times

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Melchor, Denyz, Naoz, Smadar, Gezari, Suvi, Mockler, Brenna
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Melchor, Denyz
Naoz, Smadar
Gezari, Suvi
Mockler, Brenna
author_facet Melchor, Denyz
Naoz, Smadar
Gezari, Suvi
Mockler, Brenna
contents Tidal disruption events (TDEs) offer a unique probe of supermassive black hole (SMBH) demographics, but their observed rates remain difficult to reconcile with standard single-SMBH models. In this work, we use simulations of SMBH binaries, including the combined effects of eccentric Kozai-Lidov oscillations and two-body relaxation, to explore how TDE rates scale with SMBH mass and redshift. We find that binary systems exhibit increasing TDE rates with mass, in contrast to the declining trend expected for single SMBHs. These binary-driven rates match those observed in post-starburst galaxies, suggesting that a subset of TDE hosts may contain SMBH binaries. TDE light curves in some massive galaxies exhibit unexpectedly short durations, suggesting that the disrupting SMBH may be less massive than implied by host galaxy scaling relations, consistent with disruptions by the less massive black hole in a binary. By convolving our mass-dependent rates with the SMBH mass function, we predict redshift-dependent TDE rates, which we show can be used to constrain the supermassive black hole binary fraction. Our results provide a testable framework for interpreting TDE demographics in upcoming wide-field surveys such as LSST and Roman.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08082
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tidal Disruption Event Demographics in Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Over Cosmic Times
Melchor, Denyz
Naoz, Smadar
Gezari, Suvi
Mockler, Brenna
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) offer a unique probe of supermassive black hole (SMBH) demographics, but their observed rates remain difficult to reconcile with standard single-SMBH models. In this work, we use simulations of SMBH binaries, including the combined effects of eccentric Kozai-Lidov oscillations and two-body relaxation, to explore how TDE rates scale with SMBH mass and redshift. We find that binary systems exhibit increasing TDE rates with mass, in contrast to the declining trend expected for single SMBHs. These binary-driven rates match those observed in post-starburst galaxies, suggesting that a subset of TDE hosts may contain SMBH binaries. TDE light curves in some massive galaxies exhibit unexpectedly short durations, suggesting that the disrupting SMBH may be less massive than implied by host galaxy scaling relations, consistent with disruptions by the less massive black hole in a binary. By convolving our mass-dependent rates with the SMBH mass function, we predict redshift-dependent TDE rates, which we show can be used to constrain the supermassive black hole binary fraction. Our results provide a testable framework for interpreting TDE demographics in upcoming wide-field surveys such as LSST and Roman.
title Tidal Disruption Event Demographics in Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Over Cosmic Times
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08082