A New Way to Detect Massive Black Holes in Galaxies: the Stellar Remnants of Tidal Disruption
نویسنده
چکیده
We point out that the tidal disruption of a giant may leave a luminous (10−10 erg/s), hot (10−100 eV) stellar core. The “supersoft” source (SSS) detected by Chandra at the center of M31 may be such a core; whether or not it is, the observations have shown that such a core is detectable, even in the center of a galaxy. We therefore explore the range of expected observational signatures, and how they may be used to (1) test the hypothesis that the M31 source is a remnant of tidal stripping, and (2) discover evidence of black holes and disruption events in other galaxies. Subject headings: X-rays: stars — galaxies: M31 1. tidal disruption of giants: the core remains A star of mass M∗ and radius R∗ can be tidally disrupted by approaching within Rt of a black hole (BH).
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