Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are a class of transients that occur when a star is destroyed by the tides of a massive black hole (MBH). Their rates encode valuable MBH demographic information, but this can only be extracted if accurate TDE rate predictions are available for comparisons with observe...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/addd1b |
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| author | Christian H. Hannah Nicholas C. Stone Anil C. Seth Sjoert van Velzen |
| author_facet | Christian H. Hannah Nicholas C. Stone Anil C. Seth Sjoert van Velzen |
| author_sort | Christian H. Hannah |
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| description | Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are a class of transients that occur when a star is destroyed by the tides of a massive black hole (MBH). Their rates encode valuable MBH demographic information, but this can only be extracted if accurate TDE rate predictions are available for comparisons with observed rates. In this work, we present a new, observer-friendly Python package called REPTiDE, which implements a standard loss-cone model for computing TDE rates given a stellar density distribution and an MBH mass. We apply this software to a representative sample of 91 nearby galaxies over a wide range of stellar masses with high-resolution nuclear density measurements from C. H. Hannah et al. We measure per-galaxy TDE rates ranging between 10 ^−7.7 and 10 ^−2.9 yr ^–1 and find that the sample-averaged rates agree well with observations. We find a turnover in the TDE rate as a function of both galaxy stellar mass and black hole mass, with the peak rates being observed in galaxies at a galaxy mass of 10 ^9.5 M _⊙ and a black hole mass of 10 ^6.5 M _⊙ . Despite the lower TDE rates inferred for intermediate-mass black holes, we find that they have gained a higher fraction of their mass through TDEs when compared to higher-mass black holes. This growth of lower-mass black holes through TDEs can enable us to place interesting constraints on their spins; we find maximum spins of a _• ≈ 0.9 for black holes with masses below ∼10 ^5.5 M _⊙ . |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-68727c252a304e4aafb2c2cf60f946bd2025-08-20T03:49:55ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-0198812910.3847/1538-4357/addd1bCounting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDEChristian H. Hannah0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7064-3867Nicholas C. Stone1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4337-9458Anil C. Seth2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0248-5470Sjoert van Velzen3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3859-8074Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah , 115 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USARacah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University , 91904 Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin , Madison, WI 53706, USADepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah , 115 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USALeiden Observatory, Leiden University , Postbus 9513, 2300 RA, Leiden, The NetherlandsTidal disruption events (TDEs) are a class of transients that occur when a star is destroyed by the tides of a massive black hole (MBH). Their rates encode valuable MBH demographic information, but this can only be extracted if accurate TDE rate predictions are available for comparisons with observed rates. In this work, we present a new, observer-friendly Python package called REPTiDE, which implements a standard loss-cone model for computing TDE rates given a stellar density distribution and an MBH mass. We apply this software to a representative sample of 91 nearby galaxies over a wide range of stellar masses with high-resolution nuclear density measurements from C. H. Hannah et al. We measure per-galaxy TDE rates ranging between 10 ^−7.7 and 10 ^−2.9 yr ^–1 and find that the sample-averaged rates agree well with observations. We find a turnover in the TDE rate as a function of both galaxy stellar mass and black hole mass, with the peak rates being observed in galaxies at a galaxy mass of 10 ^9.5 M _⊙ and a black hole mass of 10 ^6.5 M _⊙ . Despite the lower TDE rates inferred for intermediate-mass black holes, we find that they have gained a higher fraction of their mass through TDEs when compared to higher-mass black holes. This growth of lower-mass black holes through TDEs can enable us to place interesting constraints on their spins; we find maximum spins of a _• ≈ 0.9 for black holes with masses below ∼10 ^5.5 M _⊙ .https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/addd1bTidal disruptionStellar dynamicsGalaxy nucleiBlack holesStar clustersIntermediate-mass black holes |
| spellingShingle | Christian H. Hannah Nicholas C. Stone Anil C. Seth Sjoert van Velzen Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE The Astrophysical Journal Tidal disruption Stellar dynamics Galaxy nuclei Black holes Star clusters Intermediate-mass black holes |
| title | Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE |
| title_full | Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE |
| title_fullStr | Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE |
| title_full_unstemmed | Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE |
| title_short | Counting the Unseen. II. Tidal Disruption Event Rates in Nearby Galaxies with REPTiDE |
| title_sort | counting the unseen ii tidal disruption event rates in nearby galaxies with reptide |
| topic | Tidal disruption Stellar dynamics Galaxy nuclei Black holes Star clusters Intermediate-mass black holes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/addd1b |
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