Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes
Abstract
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,more »
- Authors:
-
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- College of Charleston, SC (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- 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)
- Washburn Univ., Topeka, KS (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1557032
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-752874
Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357; 938505
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 865; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; black hole physics; hydrodynamics; nuclear reactions; nucleosynthesis; abundances; stars: black holes; white dwarfs
Citation Formats
Anninos, Peter, Fragile, P. Chris, Olivier, Samuel S., Hoffman, Robert, Mishra, Bhupendra, and Camarda, Karen. Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9.
Anninos, Peter, Fragile, P. Chris, Olivier, Samuel S., Hoffman, Robert, Mishra, Bhupendra, & Camarda, Karen. Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9
Anninos, Peter, Fragile, P. Chris, Olivier, Samuel S., Hoffman, Robert, Mishra, Bhupendra, and Camarda, Karen. Mon .
"Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1557032.
@article{osti_1557032,
title = {Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes},
author = {Anninos, Peter and Fragile, P. Chris and Olivier, Samuel S. and Hoffman, Robert and Mishra, Bhupendra and Camarda, Karen},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 1,
volume = 865,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
Web of Science
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