The disk accretion of a tidally disrupted star onto a massive black hole
The Astrophysical Journal1990Vol. 351, pp. 38–38
Citations Over TimeTop 14% of 1990 papers
Abstract
The consequences of the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole are considered. The initial extremely eccentric orbit of the stellar debris will become a circular orbit near the tidal radius after experiencing strong shocks which thermalize the orbital energy on a relatively short time scale. The subsequent evolution of the accretion disk is studied using a time-dependent alpha-disk model. It is suggested that some fraction of galaxies (particularly dwarf ellipticals) should be extremely bright at far-UV wavelengths if they contain black holes of 1 to 100 million solar masses. On the other hand, these results may argue against the presence of massive black holes in nearby galaxies such as M32.