Tidal disruption by extreme mass ratio binaries and application to ASASSN-15lh

Understand

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) observed in massive galaxies with inferred central black hole masses $M_h > 10^8 \ M_\odot$ are presumptive candidates for TDEs by lower mass secondaries in binary systems.

• We use hydrodynamic simulations to quantify the characteristics of such TDEs, focusing on extreme mass ratio binaries and mpc separations where the debris stream samples the binary potential.
• The simulations are initialised with disruption trajectories from 3-body integrations of stars with parabolic orbits with respect to the binary center of mass.
• The most common outcome is found to be the formation of an unbound debris stream, with either weak late-time accretion or no accretion at all.