DISK FORMATION VERSUS DISK ACCRETION-WHAT POWERS TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENTS?

作者:Piran Tsvi*; Svirski Gilad; Krolik Julian; Cheng Roseanne M; Shiokawa Hotaka
来源:Astrophysical Journal, 2015, 806(2): 164.
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/806/2/164

摘要

A tidal disruption event (TDE) takes place when a star passes near enough to a massive black hole to be disrupted. About half the star's matter is given elliptical trajectories with large apocenter distances, and the other half is unbound. To form an accretion flow, the bound matter must lose a significant amount of energy, with the actual amount depending on the characteristic scale of the flow measured in units of the black hole's gravitational radius (similar to 10(51) (R/1000R(g))(-1) erg). Recent numerical simulations have revealed that the accretion flow scale is close to the scale of the most bound initial orbits, similar to 10(3)M(BH,6.5)(-2/3)R(g) similar to 10(15)M(BH,6.5)(1/3) cm from the black hole, and the corresponding energy dissipation rate is similar to 10(44)M(BH,6.5)(-1/6) erg s(-1). We suggest that the energy liberated during the formation of the accretion disk, rather than the energy liberated by subsequent accretion onto the black hole, powers the observed optical TDE candidates. The observed rise times, luminosities, temperatures, emission radii, and line widths seen in these TDEs are all more readily explained in terms of heating associated with disk formation rather than in terms of accretion.

  • 出版日期2015-6-20