Hydrodynamical simulations of the tidal stripping of binary stars by massive black holes

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamical simulations to explore how binary stars are tidally disrupted by massive black holes, revealing that certain features in accretion light curves can predict periodic flares.

Contribution

First simulation of binary star tidal disruptions by black holes using GADGET2, identifying light curve features that predict subsequent periodic flares.

Findings

Knees in light curves indicate potential for periodic flares.

Impact parameter and mass differences influence disruption signatures.

Knee signatures are most prominent for black holes of 10^6-10^7 solar masses.

Abstract

In a galactic nucleus, a star on a low angular momentum orbit around the central massive black hole can be fully or partially disrupted by the black hole tidal field, lighting up the compact object via gas accretion. This phenomenon can repeat if the star, not fully disrupted, is on a closed orbit. Because of the multiplicity of stars in binary systems, also binary stars may experience in pairs such a fate, immediately after being tidally separated. The consumption of both the binary components by the black hole is expected to power a double-peaked flare. In this paper, we perform for the first time, with GADGET2, a suite of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of binary stars around a galactic central black hole in the Newtonian regime. We show that accretion luminosity light curves from double tidal disruptions reveal a more prominent knee, rather than a double peak, when decreasing the impact parameter of the encounter and when elevating the difference between the mass of the star which leaves the system after binary separation and the mass of the companion. The detection of a knee can anticipate the onset of periodic accretion luminosity flares if one of the stars, only partially disrupted, remains bound to the black hole after binary separation. Thus knees could be precursors of periodic flares, which can then be predicted, followed up and better modelled. Analytical estimates in the black hole mass range $10^5-10^8 \rm M_{\rm \odot}$ show that the knee signature is enhanced in the case of black holes of mass $10^6-10^7 \rm M_{\rm \odot}$.