No Arabic abstract
We analyze the early growth stage of direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) with $sim 10^{5} rm M_odot$, which are formed by collapse of supermassive stars in atomic-cooling halos at $z gtrsim 10$. A nuclear accretion disk around a newborn DCBH is gravitationally unstable and fragments into clumps with a few $10 rm M_odot$ at $sim 0.01-0.1 rm pc$ from the center. Such clumps evolve into massive population III stars with a few $10-100 rm M_odot$ via successive gas accretion and a nuclear star cluster is formed. Radiative and mechanical feedback from an inner slim disk and the star cluster will significantly reduce the gas accretion rate onto the DCBH within $sim 10^6 rm yr$. Some of the nuclear stars can be scattered onto the loss cone orbits also within $lesssim 10^6 rm yr$ and tidally disrupted by the central DCBH. The jet luminosity powered by such tidal disruption events can be $L_{rm j} gtrsim 10^{50} rm erg s^{-1}$. The prompt emission will be observed in X-ray bands with a peak duration of $delta t_{rm obs} sim 10^{5-6} (1+z) rm s$ followed by a tail $propto t_{rm obs}^{-5/3}$, which can be detectable by Swift BAT and eROSITA even from $z sim 20$. Follow-up observations of the radio afterglows with, e.g., eVLA and the host halos with JWST could probe the earliest AGN feedback from DCBHs.
As the sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) instruments improves and new networks start operating, hundreds of merging stellar-mass black holes (SBHs) and intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are expected to be observed in the next few years. The origin and distribution of SBH and IMBH binaries in various dynamical environments is a fundamental scientific question in GW astronomy. In this paper, we discuss ways tidal disruption events (TDEs) may provide a unique electromagnetic window into the assembly and merger of binary SBHs and IMBHs in nuclear star clusters (NSCs). We discuss how the host NSC mass and density and the slope of the black-hole mass function set the orbital properties and the masses of the binaries that undergo a TDE. For typical NSC properties, we predict a TDE rate of $sim 10^{-6}$--$10^{-7} {rm yr}^{-1}$ per galaxy. The lightcurve of TDEs in NSCs could be interrupted and modulated by the companion black hole on the orbital period of the binary. These should be readily detectable by optical transient surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility and LSST.
Direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) are currently one of the leading contenders for the origins of the first quasars in the universe, over 300 of which have now been found at $z >$ 6. But the birth of a DCBH in an atomically-cooling halo does not by itself guarantee it will become a quasar by $z sim$ 7, the halo must also be located in cold accretion flows or later merge with a series of other gas-rich halos capable of fueling the BHs rapid growth. Here, we present near infrared luminosities for DCBHs born in cold accretion flows in which they are destined to grow to 10$^9$ M$_{odot}$ by $z sim$ 7. Our observables, which are derived from cosmological simulations with radiation hydrodynamics with Enzo, reveal that DCBHs could be found by the James Webb Space Telescope at $z lesssim$ 20 and strongly-lensed DCBHs might be found in future wide-field surveys by Euclid and the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope at $z lesssim$ 15.
We discuss the gravitational wave emission and the orbital evolution of a hierarchical triple system composed of an inner binary black hole (BBH) and an outer tertiary. Depending on the kick velocity at the merger, the merged BBH could tidally disrupt the tertiary. Even though the fraction of BBH mergers accompanied by such disruptions is expected to be much smaller than unity, the existence of a tertiary and its basic parameters (e.g. semimajor axis, projected mass) can be examined for more than 1000 BBHs with the space GW detector LISA and its follow-on missions. This allows us to efficiently prescreen the targets for the follow-up searches for the tidal disruption events (TDEs). The TDE probability would be significantly higher for triple systems with aligned orbital- and spin-angular momenta, compared with random configurations.
A tidal disruption event (TDE) ensues when a star passes too close to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a galactic center and is ripped apart by the tidal field of the SMBH. The gaseous debris produced in a TDE can power a bright electromagnetic flare as it is accreted by the SMBH; so far, several dozen TDE candidates have been observed. For SMBHs with masses above $sim 10^7 M_odot$, the tidal disruption of solar-type stars occurs within ten gravitational radii of the SMBH, implying that general relativity (GR) is needed to describe gravity. Three promising signatures of GR in TDEs are: (1) a super-exponential cutoff in the volumetric TDE rate for SMBH masses above $sim 10^8 M_odot$ due to direct capture of tidal debris by the event horizon, (2) delays in accretion disk formation (and a consequent alteration of the early-time light curve) caused by the effects of relativistic precession on stream circularization, and (3) quasi-periodic modulation of X-ray emission due to global precession of misaligned accretion disks and the jets they launch. We review theoretical models and simulations of TDEs in Newtonian gravity, then describe how relativistic modifications give rise to these proposed observational signatures, as well as more speculative effects of GR. We conclude with a brief summary of TDE observations and the extent to which they show indications of these predicted relativistic signatures.
We present the first simulations of the tidal disruption of stars with realistic structures and compositions by massive black holes (BHs). We build stars in the stellar evolution code MESA and simulate their disruption in the 3D adaptive-mesh hydrodynamics code FLASH, using an extended Helmholtz equation of state and tracking 49 elements. We study the disruption of a 1$M_odot$ star and 3$M_odot$ star at zero-age main sequence (ZAMS), middle-age, and terminal-age main sequence (TAMS). The maximum BH mass for tidal disruption increases by a factor of $sim$2 from stellar radius changes due to MS evolution; this is equivalent to varying BH spin from 0 to 0.75. The shape of the mass fallback rate curves is different from the results for polytropes of Guillochon & Ramirez-Ruiz (2013). The peak timescale $t_{rm peak}$ increases with stellar age, while the peak fallback rate $dot M_{rm peak}$ decreases with age, and these effects diminish with increasing impact parameter $beta$. For a $beta=1$ disruption of a 1$M_odot$ star by a $10^6 M_odot$ BH, from ZAMS to TAMS, $t_{rm peak}$ increases from 30 to 54 days, while $dot M_{rm peak}$ decreases from 0.66 to 0.14 $M_odot$/yr. Compositional anomalies in nitrogen, helium, and carbon can occur before the peak timescale for disruptions of MS stars, which is in contrast to predictions from the frozen-in model. More massive stars can show stronger anomalies at earlier times, meaning that compositional constraints can be key in determining the mass of the disrupted star. The abundance anomalies predicted by these simulations provide a natural explanation for the spectral features and varying line strengths observed in tidal disruption events.