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Tidal disruption events (TDEs) take place when a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and becomes ruptured. One of the leading proposed physical mechanisms often invoked in the literature involves weak two-body interactions experienced by the population of stars within the host SMBH’s sphere of influence, commonly referred to as two-body relaxation. This process can alter the angular momentum of stars at large distances and place them into nearly radial orbits, thus driving them to disruption. On the other hand, gravitational perturbations from an SMBH companion via the eccentric Kozai–Lidov (EKL) mechanism have also been proposed as a promising stellar disruption channel. Here we demonstrate that the combination of EKL and two-body relaxation in SMBH binaries is imperative for building a comprehensive picture of the rates of TDEs. Here we explore how the density profile of the surrounding stellar distribution and the binary orbital parameters of an SMBH companion influence the rate of TDEs. We show that this combined channel naturally produces disruptions at a rate that is consistent with observations and also naturally forms repeated TDEs, where a bound star is partially disrupted over multiple orbits. Recent observations show stars being disrupted in short-period orbits, which is challenging to explain when these mechanisms are considered independently. However, the diffusive effect of two-body relaxation, combined with the secular nature of the eccentricity excitations from EKL, is found to drive stars on short eccentric orbits at a much higher rate. Finally, we predict that rTDEs are more likely to take place in the presence of a steep stellar density distribution.

Dynamical perturbations from supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries can increase the rates of tidal disruption events (TDEs). However, most previous work focuses on TDEs from the heavier black hole in the SMBH binary (SMBHB) system. In this work, we focus on the lighter black holes in SMBHB systems and show that they can experience a similarly dramatic increase in their TDE rate due to perturbations from a more massive companion. While the increase in TDEs around the more massive black hole is mostly due to chaotic orbital perturbations, we find that, around the smaller black hole, the eccentric Kozai–Lidov mechanism is dominant and capable of producing a comparably large number of TDEs. In this scenario, the mass derived from the light curve and spectra of TDEs caused by the lighter SMBH companion is expected to be significantly smaller than the SMBH mass estimated from galaxy scaling relations, which are dominated by the more massive companion. This apparent inconsistency can help find SMBHB candidates that are not currently accreting as active galactic nuclei and that are at separations too small for them to be resolved as two distinct sources. In the most extreme cases, these TDEs provide us with the exciting opportunity to study SMBHBs in galaxies where the primary SMBH is too massive to disrupt Sun-like stars.

Stellar-mass black holes can become embedded within the disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Afterwards, their interactions are mediated by their gaseous surroundings. Here, we study the evolution of stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded within AGN disks using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations and analytic methods, focusing on environments where the AGN disk scale height H is ≳ the BBH sphere of influence. We model the local surroundings of the embedded BBHs using a wind tunnel formalism and characterize different accretion regimes based on the local properties of the disk. We develop prescriptions for accretion and drag for embedded BBHs. Using these prescriptions with AGN disk models that can represent the Toomre-unstable outer regions of AGN disks, we study the long-term evolution of BBHs as they migrate through the disk. We find that BBHs typically merge within ≲1–30 Myr, increasing their mass significantly in the process, allowing BBHs to enter (or cross) the pair-instability supernova mass gap. The BBH accretion rate often exceeds the Eddington limit, sometimes by several orders of magnitude. Many embedded BBHs will merge before migrating significantly in the disk. We also discuss possible electromagnetic signatures during and following the inspiral, finding that it is generally unlikely for the bolometric luminosity of the BBH to exceed the AGN luminosity.

We present light curves and spectra of the tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-18pg/AT 2018dyb spanning a period of one year. The event shows a plethora of strong emission lines, including the Balmer series, He ii, He i, and metal lines of O iii λ3760 and N iii λλ4100, 4640 (blended with He ii). The latter lines are consistent with originating from the Bowen fluorescence mechanism. By analyzing literature spectra of past events, we conclude that these lines are common in TDEs. The spectral diversity of optical TDEs is thus larger than previously thought and includes N-rich events besides H- and He-rich events. We study how the spectral lines evolve with time, by means of their width, relative strength, and velocity offsets. The velocity width of the lines starts at ∼13,000 km s−1 and decreases with time. The ratio of He ii to N iii increases with time. The same is true for ASASSN-14li, which has a very similar spectrum to AT 2018dyb but its lines are narrower by a factor of >2. We estimate a black hole mass of MBH = M⊙ by using the M–σ relation. This is consistent with the black hole mass derived using the MOSFiT transient fitting code. The detection of strong Bowen lines in the optical spectrum is an indirect proof for extreme ultraviolet and (reprocessed) X-ray radiation and favors an accretion origin for the TDE optical luminosity. A model where photons escape after multiple scatterings through a super-Eddington thick disk and its optically thick wind, viewed at an angle close to the disk plane, is consistent with the observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first systematic study of strong binary–single and binary–binary black hole (BH) interactions with the inclusion of general relativity. By including general relativistic effects in the equations of motion during strong encounters, the dissipation of orbital energy from the emission of gravitational waves (GWs) can lead to captures and subsequent inspirals with appreciable eccentricities when entering the sensitive frequency ranges of the LIGO and Virgo GW detectors. It has been shown that binary–single interactions significantly contribute to the rate of eccentric mergers, but no studies have looked exclusively into the contribution from binary–binary interactions. To this end, we perform binary–binary and binary–single scattering experiments with general relativistic dynamics up through the 2.5 post-Newtonian order included, both in a controlled setting to gauge the importance of non-dissipative post-Newtonian terms and derive scaling relations for the cross section of GW captures, as well as experiments tuned to the strong interactions from state-of-the art globular cluster (GC) models to assess the relative importance of the binary–binary channel in facilitating GW captures and the resultant eccentricity distributions of inspiral from channel. Although binary–binary interactions are 10–100 times less frequent in GCs than binary–single interactions, their longer lifetime and more complex dynamics leads to a higher probability for GW captures to occur during the encounter. We find that binary–binary interactions contribute 25%–45% of the eccentric mergers that occur during strong BH encounters in GCs, regardless of the properties of the cluster environment. The inclusion of higher multiplicity encounters in dense star clusters therefore have major implications on the predicted rates of highly eccentric binaries potentially detectable by the LIGO/Virgo network. Because gravitational waveforms of eccentric inspirals are distinct from those generated by merging binaries that have circularized, measurements of eccentricity in such systems would highly constrain their formation scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a simple framework to calculate the time evolution of the composition of the fallback material onto a supermassive black hole arising from the tidal disruption of main-sequence stars. We study stars with masses between 0.8 and 3.0 M⊙, at evolutionary stages from zero-age main sequence to terminal-age main sequence, built using the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics code. We show that most stars develop enhancements in nitrogen (14N) and depletions in carbon (12C) and oxygen (16O) over their lifetimes, and that these features are more pronounced for higher mass stars. We find that, in an accretion-powered tidal disruption flare, these features become prominent only after the time of peak of the fallback rate and appear at earlier times for stars of increasing mass. We postulate that no severe compositional changes resulting from the fallback material should be expected near peak for a wide range of stellar masses and, as such, are unable to explain the extreme helium-to-hydrogen line ratios observed in some TDEs. On the other hand, the resulting compositional changes could help explain the presence of nitrogen-rich features, which are currently only detected after peak. When combined with the shape of the light curve, the time evolution of the composition of the fallback material provides a clear method to help constrain the nature of the disrupted star. This will enable a better characterization of the event by helping break the degeneracy between the mass of the star and the mass of the black hole when fitting tidal disruption light curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the properties of tidal disruption event (TDE) host galaxies in the context of a catalog of ∼500,000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We explore whether selection effects can account for the overrepresentation of TDEs in E+A/post-starburst galaxies by creating matched galaxy samples. Accounting for possible selection effects due to black hole (BH) mass, redshift completeness, strong active galactic nucleus presence, bulge colors, and surface brightness can reduce the apparent overrepresentation of TDEs in E+A host galaxies by a factor of ∼4 (from ∼×100–190 to ∼×25–48), but cannot fully explain the preference. We find that TDE host galaxies have atypical photometric properties compared to similar, “typical” galaxies. In particular, TDE host galaxies tend to live in or near the “green valley” between star-forming and passive galaxies, and have bluer bulge colors ( mag), lower half-light surface brightnesses (by ∼1 mag/arcsec2), higher Sérsic indices (), and higher bulge-to-total-light ratios () than galaxies with matched BH masses. We find that TDE host galaxies appear more centrally concentrated and that all have high galaxy Sérsic indices and B/T fractions—on average in the top 10% of galaxies of the same BH mass—suggesting a higher nuclear stellar density. We identify a region in the Sérsic index and BH mass parameter space that contains ∼2% of our reference catalog galaxies but of TDE host galaxies. The unique photometric properties of TDE host galaxies may be useful for selecting candidate TDEs for spectroscopic follow-up observations in large transient surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a menu of objects that can give rise to bright flares when disrupted by massive black holes (BHs), ranging from planets to evolved stars. Through their tidal disruption, main sequence and evolved stars can effectively probe the existence of otherwise quiescent supermassive BHs, and white dwarfs can probe intermediate mass BHs. Many low-mass white dwarfs possess extended hydrogen envelopes, which allow for the production of prompt flares in disruptive encounters with moderately massive BHs of 105–—masses that may constitute the majority of massive BHs by number. These objects are a missing link in two ways: (1) for probing moderately massive BHs and (2) for understanding the hydrodynamics of the disruption of objects with tenuous envelopes. A flare arising from the tidal disruption of a white dwarf by a reaches a maximum between 0.6 and 11 days, with a peak fallback rate that is usually super-Eddington and results in a flare that is likely brighter than a typical tidal disruption event. Encounters stripping only the envelope can provide hydrogen-only fallback, while encounters disrupting the core evolve from H- to He-rich fallback. While most tidal disruption candidates observed thus far are consistent with the disruptions of main sequence stars, the rapid timescales of nuclear transients such as Dougie and PTF10iya are naturally explained by the disruption of low-mass white dwarfs. As the number of observed flares continues to increase, the menu presented here will be essential for characterizing nuclear BHs and their environments through tidal disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the emission from tidal disruption events (TDEs) produced as radiation from black hole accretion propagates through an extended, optically thick envelope formed from stellar debris. We analytically describe key physics controlling spectrum formation, and present detailed radiative transfer calculations that model the spectral energy distribution and optical line strengths of TDEs near peak brightness. The steady-state transfer is coupled to a solver for the excitation and ionization states of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen (as a representative metal), without assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium. Our calculations show how an extended envelope can reprocess a fraction of soft X-rays and produce the observed optical fluxes of the order of 1043 erg s−1, with an optical/UV continuum that is not described by a single blackbody. Variations in the mass or size of the envelope may help explain how the optical flux changes over time with roughly constant color. For high enough accretion luminosities, X-rays can escape to be observed simultaneously with the optical flux. Due to optical depth effects, hydrogen Balmer line emission is often strongly suppressed relative to helium line emission (with He ii-to-H line ratios of at least 5:1 in some cases) even in the disruption of a solar-composition star. We discuss the implications of our results to understanding the type of stars destroyed in TDEs and the physical processes responsible for producing the observed flares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we model the observable signatures of tidal disruptions of white dwarf (WD) stars using massive black holes (MBHs) of moderate mass, ≈103–105M⊙. When the WD passes deep enough within the MBH’s tidal field, these signatures include thermonuclear transients from burning during maximum compression. We combine a hydrodynamic simulation that includes nuclear burning of the disruption of a 0.6 M⊙ C/O WD with a Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculation to synthesize the properties of a representative transient. The transient’s emission emerges in the optical, with light curves and spectra reminiscent of Type I supernovae. The properties are strongly viewing angle dependent, and key spectral signatures are ≈10,000 km s−1 doppler shifts, due to the orbital motion of the unbound ejecta. Disruptions of He WDs likely produce large quantities of intermediate-mass elements, offering a possible production mechanism for Ca-rich transients. Accompanying multi-wavelength transients are fueled by accretion and arise from the nascent accretion disk and relativistic jet. If MBHs of moderate mass exist with number densities similar to those of supermassive BHs, both high-energy wide-field monitors and upcoming optical surveys should detect tens to hundreds of WD tidal disruptions per year. The current best strategy for their detection may therefore be deep optical follow-up of high-energy transients of unusually long duration. The detection rate or the nondetection of these transients by current and upcoming surveys can thus be used to place meaningful constraints on the extrapolation of the MBH mass function to moderate masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When embedded in dense cluster cores, intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) acquire close stellar or stellar-remnant companions. These companions are not only gravitationally bound, but also tend to hierarchically isolate from other cluster stars through series of multibody encounters. In this paper we study the demographics of IMBH companions in compact star clusters through direct N-body simulations. We study clusters initially composed of 105 or 2 × 105 stars with IMBHs of 75 and 150 solar masses, and we follow their evolution for 6–10 Gyr. A tight, innermost binary pair of IMBH and stellar object rapidly forms. The IMBH has a companion with an orbital semimajor axis at least three times tighter than the second-most-bound object over 90% of the time. These companionships have typical periods on the order of years and are subject to cycles of exchange and destruction. The most frequently observed, long-lived pairings persist for ∼107 years. The demographics of IMBH companions in clusters are diverse: they include both main-sequence, giant stars and stellar remnants. Companion objects may reveal the presence of an IMBH in a cluster in one of several ways. The most-bound companion stars routinely suffer grazing tidal interactions with the IMBH, offering a dynamical mechanism to produce repeated flaring episodes like those seen in the IMBH candidate HLX-1. The stellar winds of companion stars provide a minimum quiescent accretion rate for IMBHs, with implications for radio searches for IMBH accretion in globular clusters. Finally, gravitational wave inspirals of compact objects occur with promising frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron star (binary neutron star and neutron star–black hole) mergers are believed to produce short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). They are also believed to be the dominant source of gravitational waves to be detected by the advanced LIGO and advanced VIRGO and the dominant source of the heavy r-process elements in the universe. Whether or not these mergers produce short-duration GRBs depends sensitively on the fate of the core of the remnant (whether, and how quickly, it forms a black hole). In this paper, we combine the results of Newtonian merger calculations and equation of state studies to determine the fate of the cores of neutron star mergers. Using population studies, we can determine the distribution of these fates to compare to observations. We find that black hole cores form quickly only for equations of state that predict maximum non-rotating neutron star masses below 2.3–2.4 solar masses. If quick black hole formation is essential in producing GRBs, LIGO/Virgo observed rates compared to GRB rates could be used to constrain the equation of state for dense nuclear matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main-sequence disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes result in the production of an extended, geometrically thin debris stream winding repeatedly around the black hole. In the absence of black hole spin, in-plane relativistic precession causes this stream to intersect with itself after a single winding. In this paper we show that relativistic precessions arising from black hole spin can induce deflections out of the original orbital plane that prevent the stream from self-intersecting even after many windings. This naturally leads to a “dark period” in which the flare is not observable for some time, persisting for up to a dozen orbital periods of the most bound material, which translates to years for disruptions around black holes with masses . When the stream eventually self-intersects, the distance from the black hole and the angle at which this collision occurs determine the rate of energy dissipation. We find that more-massive black holes () tend to have more violent stream self-intersections, resulting in prompt accretion. For these tidal disruption events (TDEs), the accretion rate onto the black hole should still closely follow the original fallback rate after a fixed delay time , . For lower black hole masses (), we find that flares are typically slowed down by about an order of magnitude, resulting in the majority of TDEs being sub-Eddington at peak. This also implies that current searches for TDEs are biased toward prompt flares, with slowed flares likely having been unidentified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines flows in the immediate vicinity of stars and compact objects dynamically inspiralling within a common envelope (CE). Flow in the vicinity of the embedded object is gravitationally focused, leading to drag and potentially to gas accretion. This process has been studied numerically and analytically in the context of Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion (HLA). Yet, within a CE, accretion structures may span a large fraction of the envelope radius, and in so doing sweep across a substantial radial gradient of density. We quantify these gradients using detailed stellar evolution models for a range of CE encounters. We provide estimates of typical scales in CE encounters that involve main sequence stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes with giant-branch companions of a wide range of masses. We apply these typical scales to hydrodynamic simulations of three-dimensional HLA with an upstream density gradient. This density gradient breaks the symmetry that defines HLA flow, and imposes an angular momentum barrier to accretion. Material that is focused into the vicinity of the embedded object thus may not be able to accrete. As a result, accretion rates drop dramatically, by one to two orders of magnitude, while drag rates are only mildly affected. We provide fitting formulae to the numerically derived rates of drag and accretion as a function of the density gradient. The reduced ratio of accretion to drag suggests that objects that can efficiently gain mass during CE evolution, such as black holes and neutron stars, may grow less than implied by the HLA formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]