A Formation Crisis of Repeating Partial Tidal Disruption Events

TL;DR

This paper examines the formation mechanisms of repeating partial tidal disruption events (rpTDEs), suggesting an alternative origin involving binary star disruptions and predicting observable hypervelocity stars in the Milky Way.

Contribution

It proposes that the Hills mechanism involving binary star disruptions may explain rpTDEs, challenging previous loss cone channel predictions.

Findings

Most rpTDE candidates violate the loss cone inequality.

Captured stars from binary disruptions can evade the inequality.

Galactic Center should host hypervelocity stars from this process.

Abstract

A number of candidate repeating partial tidal disruption events (rpTDEs) have been reported in recent years. If these events are confirmed, the high fraction of observed rpTDEs among all tidal disruption events (TDEs) is in tension with prediction of the loss cone channel. We further point out an inequality $M_\bullet \lesssim 4\times 10^6 M_\odot (T_{\rm obt}/10\ {\rm yr})^{4/9}$ that must be satisfied for rpTDEs of solar type stars in the loss cone channel, where $M_\bullet$ is the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and $T_{\rm obt}$ is the orbital period of the star. However the majority of reported rpTDE candidates potentially violate this inequality, indicating an alternative formation channel. In the commonly invoked Hills mechanism, the captured stars produced by tidal disruption of near-contact binaries can evade this inequality and may be the dominant source of rpTDEs. If the same process operates in the Galactic Center, there should exist a population of hypervelocity stars (HVSs) ejected with velocities as high as $3.6\times 10^3 (M_\bullet/10^6 M_\odot)^{1/6}\ {\rm km\ s}^{-1}$, which however have not been detected. A complete search for HVSs in the Milky Way will be critical for testing this prediction.