On the impact of relativistic gravity on the rate of tidal disruption events

Understand

The tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) probes relativistic gravity.

• In the coming decade, the number of observed tidal disruption events (TDEs) will grow by several orders of magnitude, allowing statistical inferences of the properties of the SMBH and stellar populations.
• Here we analyse the probability distribution functions of the pericentre distances of stars that encounter an SMBH in the Schwarzschild geometry, where the results are completely analytic, and the Kerr metric.
• From this analysis we calculate the number of observable TDEs, defined to be those that come within the tidal radius $r_{\rm t}$ but outside the direct capture radius (which is, in general, larger than the horizon radius).