Nixon, C.J. orcid.org/0000-0002-2137-4146, Coughlin, E.R. orcid.org/0000-0003-3765-6401 and Miles, P.R. orcid.org/0000-0003-1354-1984 (2021) Partial, Zombie, and Full Tidal Disruption of Stars by Supermassive Black Holes. The Astrophysical Journal, 922 (2). 168. ISSN 0004-637X
Abstract
We present long-duration numerical simulations of the tidal disruption of stars modeled with accurate stellar structures and spanning a range of pericenter distances, corresponding to cases where the stars are partially and completely disrupted. We substantiate the prediction that the late-time power-law index of the fallback rate n∞ ≃ −5/3 for full disruptions, while for partial disruptions—in which the central part of the star survives the tidal encounter intact—we show that n∞ ≃ −9/4. For the subset of simulations where the pericenter distance is close to that which delineates full from partial disruption, we find that a stellar core can reform after the star has been completely destroyed; for these events the energy of the zombie core is slightly positive, which results in late-time evolution from n ≃ −9/4 to n ≃ −5/3. We find that self-gravity can generate an n(t) that deviates from n∞ by a small but significant amount for several years post-disruption. In one specific case with the stellar pericenter near the critical value, we find that self-gravity also drives the recollapse of the central regions of the debris stream into a collection of several cores while the rest of the stream remains relatively smooth. We also show that it is possible for the surviving stellar core in a partial disruption to acquire a circumstellar disk that is shed from the rapidly rotating core. Finally, we provide a novel analytical fitting function for the fallback rates that may also be useful in a range of contexts beyond tidal disruption events.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021. The American Astronomical Society. This is an author produced version of an article published in Astrophysical Journal. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
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 10:20 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2023 18:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/1538-4357/ac1bb8 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204836 |