Tidal Disruption of Stellar Objects by Hard Supermassive Black Hole Binaries

TL;DR

This study models the tidal disruption rates of stars by supermassive black hole binaries, revealing significantly lower rates compared to single black holes, which can inform understanding of SMBHB evolution in galaxies.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed numerical calculations of stellar tidal disruption rates by SMBHBs, incorporating relativistic effects and loss cone dynamics, to compare with single SMBH scenarios.

Findings

Tidal disruption rate in SMBHBs is over ten times lower than in single SMBHs.

Rate differences are more pronounced in less massive galaxies.

Results can help determine SMBH binary presence and merger timescales from observational data.

Abstract

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are expected by the hierarchical galaxy formation model in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. There is some evidence in the literature for SMBHBs in AGNs, but there are few observational constraints on the evolution of SMBHBs in inactive galaxies and gas-poor mergers. On the theoretical front, it is unclear how long is needed for a SMBHB in a typical galaxy to coalesce. In this paper we investigate the tidal interaction between stars and binary BHs and calculate the tidal disruption rates of stellar objects by the BH components of binary. We derive the interaction cross sections between SMBHBs and stars from intensive numerical scattering experiments with particle number $\sim10^7$ and calculate the tidal disruption rates by both single and binary BHs for a sample of realistic galaxy models, taking into account the general relativistic effect and the loss cone refilling because of two-body interaction. We estimate the frequency of tidal flares for different types of galaxies using the BH mass function in the literature. We find that because of the three-body slingshot effect, the tidal disruption rate in SMBHB system is more than one order of magnitude smaller than that in single SMBH system. The difference is more significant in less massive galaxies and does not depend on detailed stellar dynamical processes. Our calculations suggest that comparisons of the calculated tidal disruption rates for both single and binary BHs and the surveys of X-ray or UV flares at galactic centers could tell us whether most SMBHs in nearby galaxies are single and whether the SMBHBs formed in gas-poor galaxy mergers coalesce rapidly.