A unified model of tidal destruction events in the disc-dominated phase

Understand

We develop a unification scheme which explains the varied observed properties of TDEs in terms of simple disc physics.

• The unification scheme postulates that the different observed properties of TDEs are controlled by the peak Eddington ratio of the accretion discs which form following a stellar disruption.
• Our primary result is that the TDE population can be split into four subpopulations, which are (in order of decreasing peak Eddington ratio): "obscured" UV-bright and X-ray dim TDEs; X-ray bright soft-state TDEs; UV-bright and X-ray dim "cool" TDEs; and X-ray bright hard-state TDEs.
• These 4 subpopulations of TDEs will occur around black holes of well defined masses, and our unification scheme is therefore directly testable with observations.