Tidal effects on small bodies by massive black holes

Abstract

The compact radio source Sagittarius A (Sgr A) at the centre of our Galaxy harbours a supermassive black hole, whose mass has been measured from stellar orbital motions. Sgr A is therefore the nearest laboratory where super-massive black hole astrophysics can be tested, and the environment of black holes can be investigated. Since it is not an active galactic nucleus, it also offers the possibility of observing the capture of small objects that may orbit the central black hole. We study the effects of the strong gravitational field of the black hole on small objects, such as a comet or an asteroid. We also explore the idea that the flares detected in Sgr A might be produced by the final accretion of single, dense objects with mass of the order of 10^20 g, and that their timing is not a characteristic of the sources, but rather of the space-time of the central galactic black hole in which they are moving. We find that tidal effects are strong enough to melt the solid object, and present calculations of the temporal evolution of the light curve of infalling objects as a function of various parameters. Our modelling of tidal disruption suggests that during tidal squeezing, the conditions for synchrotron radiation can be met. We show that the light curve of a flare can be deduced from dynamical properties of geodesic orbits around black holes and that it depends only weakly on the physical properties of the source.

10 pages, 14 figures, A&A accepted

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• Models of quasi-periodic oscillations related to mass and spin of the GRO J1655-40 black hole
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• NuSTAR detection of high-energy X-ray emission and rapid variability from Sagittarius A* flares
• Near infrared flares of Sagittarius A*: Importance of near infrared polarimetry
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• Chandra Spectral and Timing Analysis of Sgr A*'s Brightest X-ray Flares
• Transient outburst events from tidally disrupted asteroids near white dwarfs
• Mass of intermediate black hole in the source M82 X-1 restricted by models of twin high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
• Simultaneous X-ray and Infrared Observations of Sagittarius A*'s Variability
• A Comprehensive Power Spectral Density Analysis of Astronomical Time Series. II. The Swift/BAT Long Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Timescale of twin-peak quasi-periodic oscillations and mass of accreting neutron stars
• A Systematic Chandra study of Sgr A${}^{\star }$: I. X-ray flare detection
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• A magnetohydrodynamic model for multi-wavelength flares from Sagittarius~A${}^{\star }$ (I): model and the near-infrared and X-ray flares
• Models of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations and black hole spin estimates in Galactic microquasars
• Testing black holes in non-linear electrodynamics from the observed quasi-periodic oscillations
• Mass-angular-momentum relations implied by models of twin peak quasi-periodic oscillations
• Looking for extra dimensions in the observed quasi-periodic oscillations of black holes
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• Accumulated Tidal Heating of Stars Over Multiple Pericenter Passages Near SgrA*
• Sixteen years of X-ray monitoring of Sagittarius A*: Evidence for a decay of the faint flaring rate from 2013 August, 13 months before a rise in the bright flaring rate
• Super-spinning compact objects and models of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in Galactic microquasars
• Lower-twin-peak quasiperiodic oscillation coherence in x-ray binaries and matter stretched by tides falling onto a compact object
• Analytical time-like geodesics
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• Predictions for reverberating spectral line from a newly formed black hole accretion disk: case of tidal disruption flares
• Multi-wavelength Variability of Sagittarius A* in July 2019
• No sign of G2's encounter affecting Sgr A*'s X-ray flaring rate from $Chandra$ observations
• A Systematic Chandra study of Sgr A${}^{\star }$: II. X-ray flare statistics
• Spinup and Disruption of Interstellar Asteroids by Mechanical Torques, and Implications for 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua)
• Epicyclic oscillations in the Hartle-Thorne external geometry
• Continuation of the X-ray monitoring of Sgr A*: the increase in bright flaring rate confirmed
• Confronting models for the high-frequency QPOs with Lense-Thirring precession
• Constraining models of twin peak quasi-periodic oscillations with realistic neutron star equations of state
• Deciphering signatures of Bardeen black holes from the observed quasi-periodic oscillations
• Mass of the active galactic nucleus black hole XMMUJ134736.6+173403
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• Twin peak quasi-periodic oscillations and the kinematics of orbital motion in a curved space-time
• Dragged surfaces. On the accretion tori in the ergoregion
• Simple analytic formula relating the mass and spin of accreting compact objects to their rapid X-ray variability
• Dynamics of charged particles and quasi-periodic oscillations in the vicinity of a distorted, deformed compact object embedded in a uniform magnetic field
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• Constraining the rotating Simpson-Visser spacetime from the observed quasi-periodic oscillations in black holes
• Modeling HF-QPOs in Microquasars and AGNs: Charged Particles around Black Holes with CDM Halos
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