Tidal disruption of stellar binaries as a pathway to exotic transients
Abstract
Tidal disruption event (TDE) progenitors are commonly modelled as single stars on parabolic orbits around a supermassive black hole (SMBH), yet observations reveal a richer diversity of dynamical pathways. We show that tidal separation of stellar binaries by a 106 M⊙ SMBH provides a natural mechanism for producing eccentric TDEs. Using restricted three-body and SPH simulations, we model a solar-like star (SLS)--white dwarf (WD) binary on a parabolic orbit. The binary orbital phase governs the outcome: one component is captured onto a tightly bound orbit while the other is ejected as a hypervelocity object, naturally producing TDEs with eccentricities e ≠ 1. We classify these into Elliptical TDEs (eTDEs) and Hyperbolic TDEs (hTDEs), occurring with equal probability. For ∼ 88% of orientations the disruption is clean, with no mass accreted by the WD. The remaining ∼ 12%, in two narrow phase windows, leaves the WD with a captured debris envelope (WDDE). About a third of that, ∼ 4% of orientations, involves a direct WD--SLS collision near pericenter, with fallback peaking up to five times earlier and twenty times higher than for a single star; for the innermost ∼ 1.5% the total WDDE mass exceeds 1.4 M⊙, though the degenerate core does not, since the captured material forms a non-degenerate envelope, suggesting outcomes ranging from nova-like events to peculiar red giant-like objects. Depending on the phase, the mechanism may also produce repeating partial TDEs (rTDEs) and quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). Binary--SMBH encounters provide a robust channel for generating diverse TDEs with distinct observational signatures.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{gonzalezservin2026tidal,
title = {{Tidal disruption of stellar binaries as a pathway to exotic transients}},
author = {Mauricio González-Servín and Emilio Tejeda and Susana Lizano and Luis A. Manzaneda and Raúl Cano-Villegas},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.22735},
eprint = {2608.22735},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.22735},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tidal disruption of stellar binaries as a pathway to exotic transients
AU - Mauricio González-Servín
AU - Emilio Tejeda
AU - Susana Lizano
AU - Luis A. Manzaneda
AU - Raúl Cano-Villegas
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.22735
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.22735
AB - Tidal disruption event (TDE) progenitors are commonly modelled as single stars on parabolic orbits around a supermassive black hole (SMBH), yet observations reveal a richer diversity of dynamical pathways. We show that tidal separation of stellar binaries by a 10^6 M_⊙ SMBH provides a natural mechanism for producing eccentric TDEs. Using restricted three-body and SPH simulations, we model a solar-like star (SLS)--white dwarf (WD) binary on a parabolic orbit. The binary orbital phase governs the outcome: one component is captured onto a tightly bound orbit while the other is ejected as a hypervelocity object, naturally producing TDEs with eccentricities e ≠ 1. We classify these into Elliptical TDEs (eTDEs) and Hyperbolic TDEs (hTDEs), occurring with equal probability. For ∼ 88% of orientations the disruption is clean, with no mass accreted by the WD. The remaining ∼ 12%, in two narrow phase windows, leaves the WD with a captured debris envelope (WDDE). About a third of that, ∼ 4% of orientations, involves a direct WD--SLS collision near pericenter, with fallback peaking up to five times earlier and twenty times higher than for a single star; for the innermost ∼ 1.5% the total WDDE mass exceeds 1.4 M_⊙, though the degenerate core does not, since the captured material forms a non-degenerate envelope, suggesting outcomes ranging from nova-like events to peculiar red giant-like objects. Depending on the phase, the mechanism may also produce repeating partial TDEs (rTDEs) and quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). Binary--SMBH encounters provide a robust channel for generating diverse TDEs with distinct observational signatures.
ER -