Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-09-16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5 pages 4 figures. ApJL in press, minor changes to reflect journal version including redifinition of unbound tidally disturbed
Scientific paper
10.1086/324324
Some of the mass that feeds the growth of a massive black hole (BH) in a galactic center is supplied by tidal disruption of stars that approach it on unbound, low angular momentum orbits. For each star that is disrupted, others narrowly escape after being subjected to extreme tidal distortion, spin-up, mixing and mass-loss, which may affect their evolution and appearance. We show that it is likely that a significant fraction of the stars around massive BHs in galactic centers have undergone such extreme tidal interactions and survived subsequent total disruption, either by being deflected off their orbit or by missing the BH due to its Brownian motion. We discuss possible long-term observable consequences of this process, which may be relevant for understanding the nature of stars in galactic centers, and may provide a signature of the existence of massive BHs there.
Alexander Tal
Livio Mario
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