A New Way to Detect Massive Black Holes in Galaxies: The Stellar Remnants of Tidal Disruption
Open Access
- 10 April 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Astronomical Society in The Astrophysical Journal
- Vol. 551 (1) , L37-L40
- https://doi.org/10.1086/319835
Abstract
We point out that the tidal disruption of a giant may leave a luminous (1035-1039 ergs s-1), hot (10-100 eV) stellar core. The "supersoft" source detected by Chandra at the center of M31 may be such a core; whether or not it is, the observations have shown that such a core is detectable, even in the center of a galaxy. We therefore explore the range of expected observational signatures and how they may be used to (1) test the hypothesis that the M31 source is a remnant of tidal stripping and (2) discover evidence of black holes and disruption events in other galaxies.Keywords
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