Multi-messenger astronomy with black holes: tidal disruption events

TL;DR

This paper reviews tidal disruption events as tools for multi-messenger astronomy, discussing theoretical foundations, observational techniques across various messengers, and recent advancements including repeating events and stellar-mass black hole TDEs.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and observational aspects of TDEs, highlighting recent developments and future prospects in multi-messenger observations.

Findings

TDEs can be observed via electromagnetic signals, gravitational waves, and neutrinos.

Recent discoveries include repeating TDEs and TDEs involving stellar-mass black holes.

The field is advancing with improved theoretical models and multi-messenger detection capabilities.

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of tidal disruption events, aiming to provide an overview of both the theoretical and the observational state of the field, with the overarching goal of introducing them as tools to indirectly observe massive black holes in the Universe. We start by introducing the relevant theoretical concepts, physical scales and timescales with an emphasis on the classical framework and how this has been (and continues to be) improved since the inception of the field. We then cover the current and future prospects of observing TDEs through a variety of messengers, including photons across the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as gravitational waves and neutrino particles. More recent advancements in the field, including repeating TDEs as well as TDEs by stellar-mass black holes, are also highlighted.