Modeling Tidal Disruption Events and Compact Object Plunges in Nuclear Star Clusters
Abstract
We study tidal disruption events (TDEs) and compact object inspirals in nuclear star clusters (NSCs) hosting a central supermassive black hole (SMBH), focusing on their role in SMBH growth. Using the STARDISK version of the direct N-body code NBODY6++GPU, we perform pilot simulations with two improved models: one for mass fallback from TDEs and another for compact object plunges based on orbital decay timescales. Our results show that mass accretion via TDEs peaks within the first 2 Myr and decreases more rapidly for higher initial SMBH masses, with roughly half the disrupted stellar debris being accreted. Compact object accretion is confined mostly to orbits with pericenters between 4 and 27 Schwarzschild radii and is suppressed by an order of magnitude when inspiral criteria are applied.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.08574,
title = {Modeling Tidal Disruption Events and Compact Object Plunges in Nuclear Star Clusters},
author = {Philip Cho and Kai Wu and Francesco Flammini Dotti and Taras Panamarev and Rainer Spurzem},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.08574},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 images, Accepted for publication in IAU Conference proceedings of IAU Symposium 398 & MODEST-25: Compact Objects and Binaries in Dense Stellar Systems