Collisions of red giants in galactic nuclei

TL;DR

This paper uses hydrodynamical simulations to study high-velocity collisions of red giants near supermassive black holes, revealing energetic flares and gas cloud formation that can inform black hole growth and detection.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed hydrodynamical analysis of BH-driven disruptive collisions, estimating their observable signatures and implications for black hole evolution.

Findings

Strong shocks convert >10% of kinetic energy into radiation.

Flares peak at 10^{41}-10^{44} erg/s in UV, lasting days to years.

Gas clouds from collisions can be accreted onto SMBHs, affecting their growth.

Abstract

In stellar-dense environments, stars can collide with each other. For collisions close to a supermassive black hole (SMBH), the collisional kinetic energy can be so large that the colliding stars can be completely destroyed, potentially releasing an amount of energy comparable to that of a supernova. Such violent collisions, which we call BH-driven disruptive collisions (BDCs), have been examined mostly analytically, with the non-linear hydrodynamical effects being left largely unstudied. Using the moving-mesh hydrodynamics code {\small AREPO}, we investigate high-velocity ($>10^{3}$ km/s) collisions between 1M$_{\odot}$ giants with varying radii, impact parameters, and initial approaching velocities, and estimate their observables. Very strong shocks across the collision surface efficiently convert $\gtrsim10\%$ of the initial kinetic energy into radiation energy. The outcome is a gas cloud expanding supersonically, homologously, and quasi-spherically, generating a flare with a peak luminosity $\simeq 10^{41}-10^{44}$ erg/s in the extreme UV band ($\simeq 10$ eV). The luminosity decreases approximately following a power-law $t^{-0.7}$ initially, then $t^{-0.4}$ after $t\simeq$10 days at which point it would be bright in the optical band ($\lesssim 1$eV). Subsequent, and possibly even brighter, emission would be generated due to the accretion of the gas cloud onto the nearby SMBH, possibly lasting up to multi-year timescales. This inevitable BH-collision product interaction can contribute to the growth of BHs at all mass scales, in particular, seed BHs at high redshifts. Furthermore, the proximity of the events to the central BH makes them a potential tool for probing the existence of dormant BHs, even very massive ones which cannot be probed by tidal disruption events.