Gravitational Waves and X-Ray Signals from Stellar Disruption by a Massive Black Hole
Abstract
Gravitational waves and X-ray flares are expected from tidal disruption of stars by a massive black hole. Using a relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics code, we investigate the fate of main-sequence and helium stars in plunge orbits passing near Schwarzschild or Kerr black holes of mass ~10^5-10^6 M☉. We show that quadrupole gravitational waves emitted during the tidal disruption process are described reasonably well by a point-particle approximation even in the strong-encounter case. An additional hydrodynamic calculation based on the Godunov method indicates that shocks develop for sufficiently high tidal compressions. The shock heating results in an X-ray flare, which for solar-type stars disrupted by ~10^6 M☉ black holes is in the keV range associated with the gravitational wave signal. The hardness and duration of the X-ray flare may serve as a diagnostic of the mass of the central black hole.
Additional Information
© 2004 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2004 April 7; accepted 2004 July 22. We thank M. Rees, S. Sigurdsson, T. Alexander, S. Mahadevan, and the referee for valuable comments. This work is supported by NASA NAG5-13286, NASA NAG5-10707, NSF AST 00-98416, the Monell Foundation, the Merle Kingsley fund, and the Pennsylvania State University Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, funded under cooperative agreement by NSF PHY 01-14375.Attached Files
Published - Kobayashi_2004_ApJ_615_855.pdf
Accepted Version - 0404173.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 92678
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190205-134552727
- NAG5-13286
- NASA
- NAG5-10707
- NASA
- AST 00-98416
- NSF
- Monell Foundation
- Merle Kingsley Fund
- Pennsylvania State University
- PHY 01-14375
- NSF
- Created
-
2019-02-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- TAPIR