Nixon, C.J. orcid.org/0000-0002-2137-4146 and Coughlin, E.R. orcid.org/0000-0003-3765-6401 (2022) Stellar Revival and Repeated Flares in Deeply Plunging Tidal Disruption Events. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 927 (2). L25. ISSN 2041-8205
Abstract
Tidal disruption events with tidal radius rt and pericenter distance rp are characterized by the quantity β = rt/rp, and "deep encounters" have β ≫ 1. It has been assumed that there is a critical β ≡ βc ∼ 1 that differentiates between partial and full disruption: for β < βc a fraction of the star survives the tidal interaction with the black hole, while for β > βc the star is completely destroyed, and hence all deep encounters should be full. Here we show that this assumption is incorrect by providing an example of a β = 16 encounter between a γ = 5/3, solar-like polytrope and a 106M⊙ black hole—for which previous investigations have found βc ≃ 0.9—that results in the reformation of a stellar core post-disruption that comprises approximately 25% of the original stellar mass. We propose that the core reforms under self-gravity, which remains important because of the compression of the gas both near pericenter, where the compression occurs out of the orbital plane, and substantially after pericenter, where compression is within the plane. We find that the core forms on a bound orbit about the black hole, and we discuss the corresponding implications of our findings in the context of recently observed, repeating nuclear transients.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022. The Author(s). Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2023 17:22 |
Last Modified: | 02 Nov 2023 17:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/2041-8213/ac5118 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204832 |