# The fine line between total and partial tidal disruption events

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical distance that distinguishes total from partial tidal disruption events using various simulation techniques, finding that this threshold depends weakly on the simulation method and polytropic index.

## Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of different simulation methods to determine the critical disruption parameter for tidal disruption events.

## Key findings

- Critical disruption parameter beta_d depends weakly on simulation technique.
- Beta_d is approximately 0.92 for gamma=5/3 polytrope.
- Beta_d is approximately 2.01 for gamma=4/3 polytrope.

## Abstract

Flares from tidal disruption events are unique tracers of quiescent black holes at the centre of galaxies. The appearance of these flares is very sensitive to whether the star is totally or partially disrupted, and in this paper we seek to identify the critical distance of the star from the black hole (r_d) that enables us to distinguish between these two outcomes. We perform here Mesh-free Finite Mass, traditional, and modern Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamical simulations of star-black hole close encounters, with the aim of checking if the value of r_d depends on the simulation technique. We find that the critical distance (or the so-called critical disruption parameter beta_d) depends only weakly on the adopted simulation method, being beta_d=0.92\pm 0.02 for a gamma=5/3 polytrope and beta_d=2.01\pm 0.01 for a gamma=4/3 polytrope.