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Title: Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. College of Charleston, SC (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. Washburn Univ., Topeka, KS (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We introduce results from general relativistic calculations of the tidal disruption of white dwarf stars from near encounters with intermediate-mass black holes. We view the evolution of 0.2 M⊙ and 0.6 M⊙ stars on parabolic trajectories that approach 103–104 M⊙ black holes as close as a few Schwarzschild radii at periapsis, paying particular attention to the effect that tidal disruption has on thermonuclear reactions and the synthesis of intermediate-mass to heavy elements. These encounters create diverse thermonuclear environments that are characteristic of Type I supernovae and capable of producing both intermediate-mass and heavy elements in arbitrary ratios, depending on the strength (or proximity) of the interaction. Nuclear ignition is triggered in all of our calculations, even at weak tidal strengths β ~ 2.6 and large periapsis radius R P ~ 28 Schwarzschild radii. A strong inverse correlation exists between the mass ratio of calcium-group to iron-group elements and tidal strength, with β ≲ 5 producing predominantly calcium-rich debris. At these moderate to weak interactions, nucleosynthesis is not especially efficient, limiting the total mass and outflows of calcium-group elements to <15% of available nuclear fuel. Iron-group elements, yet, continue to be produced in greater quantity and ratio with increasing tidal strength, peaking at ~60% mass conversion efficiency in our closest encounter cases. These events generate short bursts of gravitational waves with characteristic frequencies 0.1–0.7 Hz and strain amplitudes from 0.5 × 10–22 to 3.5 × 10–22 at a source distance of 10 Mpc.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1557032
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-752874; 938505
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 865, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (10)

Can we quickly flag ultra-long gamma-ray bursts? journal April 2019
Tidal disruptions by rotating black holes: effects of spin and impact parameter journal June 2019
Gravitational wave emission from unstable accretion discs in tidal disruption events journal August 2019
Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Relativistic Encounters with Rotating Intermediate Mass Black Holes journal November 2019
The Progenitors of Calcium-strong Transients journal December 2019
Tidal disruptions by rotating black holes: effects of spin and impact parameter text January 2019
Can we quickly flag Ultra-long Gamma-Ray Bursts? text January 2019
Gravitational wave emission from unstable accretion discs in tidal disruption events text January 2019
A MODEST review journal November 2018
An Arena for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics: Inspiral and Tidal Disruption of White Dwarfs by Massive Black Holes preprint January 2019

Figures / Tables (19)

Figure 1(p. 10)figure Figure 1
Table 1(p. 11)table Table 1
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Table 2(p. 14)table Table 2
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Figure 10(p. 18)figure Figure 10
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Figure 16(p. 23)figure Figure 16
Figure 17(p. 23)figure Figure 17

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
black hole physics
hydrodynamics
nuclear reactions
nucleosynthesis
abundances
stars: black holes
white dwarfs