2012/03/29 by Benjamin C. Bromley, Scott J. Kenyon, Margaret J. Geller +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Geology #Hypervelocity #Physics #Stars #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/749/2/l42
ApJ Letters, accepted; 13 pages, including 3 figures
arxiv created 2012/03/29 · openalex publication_date 2012/04/02 · arxiv updated 2015/06/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We examine whether disrupted binary stars can fuel black hole growth. In this mechanism, tidal disruption produces a single hypervelocity star (HVS) ejected at high velocity and a former companion star bound to the black hole. After a cluster of bound stars forms, orbital diffusion allows the black hole to accrete stars by tidal disruption at a rate comparable to the capture rate. In the Milky Way, HVSs and the S star cluster imply similar rates of 10 −5 to 10 −3 yr −1 for binary disruption. These rates are consistent with estimates for the tidal disruption rate in nearby galaxies and imply significant black hole growth from disrupted binaries on 10 Gyr timescales.