Tidal effects in the vicinity of a black hole

TL;DR

This paper reviews how tidal interactions near a supermassive black hole can explain transient flares observed in infrared and X-ray wavelengths from the Galactic center.

Contribution

It presents recent results on tidal evolution of satellite orbits and their in-fall, proposing a new explanation for observed flares near black holes.

Findings

Tidal effects can cause orbital evolution of low-mass satellites.

Tidal interactions may trigger transient infrared and X-ray flares.

Tidal disruption during in-fall explains flare phenomena.

Abstract

The discovery that the Galactic centre emits flares at various wavelengths represents a puzzle concerning their origin, but at the same time it is a relevant opportunity to investigate the environment of the nearest super-massive black hole. In this paper we shall review some of our recent results concerning the tidal evolution of the orbits of low mass satellites around black holes, and the tidal effect during their in-fall. We show that tidal interaction can offer an explanation for transient phenomena like near infra-red and X-ray flares from Sgr A*.