TY - JOUR
T1 - Variability in tidal disruption events
T2 - Gravitationally unstable streams
AU - Coughlin, Eric R.
AU - Nixon, Chris
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/7/20
Y1 - 2015/7/20
N2 - We present simulations of the tidal disruption of a solar mass star by a 106 M· black hole. These, for the first time, cover the full time evolution of the tidal disruption event, starting well before the initial encounter and continuing until more than 90% of the bound material has returned to the vicinity of the hole. Our results are compared to the analytical prediction for the rate at which tidally stripped gas falls back. We find that, for our chosen parameters, the overall scaling of the fallback rate, M fb, closely follows the canonical - t 5 3 power-law. However, our simulations also show that the self-gravity of the tidal stream, which dominates the tidal gravity of the hole at large distances, causes some of the debris to recollapse into bound fragments before returning to the hole. This causes M fb to vary significantly around the - t 5 3 average. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the event Swift J1644+57.
AB - We present simulations of the tidal disruption of a solar mass star by a 106 M· black hole. These, for the first time, cover the full time evolution of the tidal disruption event, starting well before the initial encounter and continuing until more than 90% of the bound material has returned to the vicinity of the hole. Our results are compared to the analytical prediction for the rate at which tidally stripped gas falls back. We find that, for our chosen parameters, the overall scaling of the fallback rate, M fb, closely follows the canonical - t 5 3 power-law. However, our simulations also show that the self-gravity of the tidal stream, which dominates the tidal gravity of the hole at large distances, causes some of the debris to recollapse into bound fragments before returning to the hole. This causes M fb to vary significantly around the - t 5 3 average. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the event Swift J1644+57.
KW - Black hole physics
KW - X-rays: individual (Swift J1644+57)
KW - galaxies: nuclei
KW - hydrodynamics
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U2 - 10.1088/2041-8205/808/1/L11
DO - 10.1088/2041-8205/808/1/L11
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84958180829
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 808
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L11
ER -