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Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright extragalactic transients likely produced by magnetars. We study the propagation of FRBs in magnetar winds, assuming that the wind is strongly magnetized and composed of electron-positron pairs. We focus on the regime where the strength parameter of the radio wave, $a_0$, is larger than unity, and the wave frequency, $\omega_0$, is larger than the Larmor frequency in the background magnetic field, $\omega_{\rm L}$. We show that strong radio waves with $a_0>1$ are able to propagate when $\omega_0 > a_0\omega_{\rm L}$, as the plasma current is a linear function of the wave electric field. The dispersion relation is independent of the wave strength parameter when $\omega_0 > a_0\omega_{\rm L}$. Instead, radio waves could be damped when $\omega_0 < a_0\omega_{\rm L}$, as a significant fraction of the wave energy is used to compress the plasma and amplify the background magnetic field. Our results suggest that FRBs should be produced at large distances from the magnetar (i.e., $R>10^{12}{\rm\; cm}$, where the condition $\omega_0 > a_0\omega_{\rm L}$ is satisfied). Alternatively, the structure of the magnetar wind should be strongly modified during a flare to allow the escape of FRBs produced at radii $R<10^{12}{\rm\; cm}$., Comment: accepted by A&A

We study the propagation of electromagnetic waves in tenuous plasmas, where the wave frequency, $\omega_0$, is much larger than the plasma frequency, $\omega_{\rm P}$. We show that in pair plasmas nonlinear effects are weak for $a_0 \ll \omega_0/\omega_{\rm P}$, where $a_0$ is the wave strength parameter. In electron-proton plasmas a more restrictive condition must be satisfied, namely either $a_0\ll 1/\omega_{\rm P}\tau_0$, where $\tau_0$ is the duration of the radiation pulse, or $a_0\ll 1$. We derive the equations that govern the evolution of the pulse in the weakly nonlinear regime. Our results have important implications for the modeling of fast radio bursts. We argue that: (i) Millisecond duration bursts with a smooth profile must be produced in a proton-free environment, where nonlinear effects are weaker. (ii) Propagation through an electron-proton plasma near the source can imprint a sub-microsecond variability on the burst profile., Comment: accepted by Phys. Rev. Research

Three recent global simulations of tidal disruption events (TDEs) have produced, using different numerical techniques and parameters, very similar pictures of their dynamics. In typical TDEs, after the star is disrupted by a supermassive black hole, the bound portion of the stellar debris follows highly eccentric trajectories, reaching apocenters of several thousand gravitational radii. Only a very small fraction is captured upon returning to the vicinity of the supermassive black hole. Nearly all the debris returns to the apocenter, where shocks produce a thick irregular cloud on this radial scale and power the optical/UV flare. These simulation results imply that over a few years, the thick cloud settles into an accretion flow responsible for the long term emission. Despite not being designed to match observations, the dynamical picture given by the three simulations aligns well with observations of typical events, correctly predicting the flares' total radiated energy, luminosity, temperature and emission line width. On the basis of these predictions, we provide an updated method ({\sc TDEmass}) to infer the stellar and black hole masses from a flare's peak luminosity and temperature. This picture also correctly predicts the luminosity observed years after the flare. In addition, we show that in a magnitude-limited survey, if the intrinsic rate of TDEs is independent of black hole mass, the detected events will preferentially have black hole masses $\sim 10^{6 \pm 0.3} M_\odot$ and stellar masses of $\sim 1-1.5 M_\odot$., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, comments welcome!

The electromagnetic emission and the afterglow observations of the binary neutron star merger event GW 170817A confirmed the association of the merger with a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) harboring a narrow ($5${\deg}-$10${\deg}) and powerful ($10^{49}$-$10^{50}~$erg) jet. Using the 1~second-long neutrino-radiation-GR-MHD simulation of coalescing neutron stars of Kiuchi et al. (2023) and following the semi-analytical estimates of Pais et al. (2023), we inject a narrow, powerful, unmagnetized jet into the post-merger phase. We explore different opening angles, luminosities, central engine durations, and times after the merger. We explore early ($0.1~$s following the merger) and late ($1~$s) jet launches; the latter is consistent with the time delay of $\approx 1.74~$s observed between GW 170817 and GRB 170817A. We demonstrate that the semi-analytical estimates correctly predict the jets' breakout and collimation conditions. When comparing our synthetic afterglow light curves to the observed radio data of GW170807, we find a good agreement for a $3 \times 10^{49}$ ergs jet launched late with an opening angle in the range $\simeq 5${\deg}-$7${\deg}., Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication on ApJ

Numerous models of neutron star (NS) equation of state (EoS) exist based on different superdense-matter physics approaches. Nevertheless, some NS properties show universal (EoS-independent) relations. Here, we propose a novel class of such universalities. Despite different physics inputs, a wide class of realistic nucleonic, hyperonic, and hybrid EoS models can be accurately described using only three parameters. For a given EoS, these are the mass and radius of the maximum-mass NS (or pressure and density in its center) and the radius of a half-maximum-mass star. With such a parametrization, we build universal analytic expressions for mass-radius and pressure-density relations. They form a semi-analytic mapping from the mass-radius relation to the EoS in NS cores (the so-called inverse Oppenheimer-Volkoff mapping). This mapping simplifies the process of inferring the EoS from observations of NS masses and radii. Applying it to current NS observations we set new limits on the high-density end of the EoS., Comment: Main text: 11 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables + Appendix: 8 pages, 1 figures, 2 tables

Radio monitoring unveiled late (hundreds to a thousand days) radio flares in a significant fraction of tidal disruption events. We propose that these late-time radio flares are a natural outcome if the surrounding density profile flattens outside the Bondi radius. At the Bondi radius, the outflow is optically thin (above a few GHz) to synchrotron self-absorption. As more and more material is swept up, the radio emission rises asymptotically as $\propto t^3$ until the outflow begins to decelerate. A Detection of such a rise and a late-time maximum constrains the black hole mass and the mass and energy of the radio-emitting outflow. We show that this model can give reasonable fits to some observed light curves, leading to reasonable estimates of the black hole and outflow masses. We also find that the slope of the density profile within the Bondi radius determines whether an early-time ($\sim10^2\,\rm days$) radio peak exists., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, and 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA) is a proposed array of next-generation inertial sensors to monitor the response of the Moon to gravitational waves (GWs). Given the size of the Moon and the expected noise produced by the lunar seismic background, the LGWA would be able to observe GWs from about 1 mHz to 1 Hz. This would make the LGWA the missing link between space-borne detectors like LISA with peak sensitivities around a few millihertz and proposed future terrestrial detectors like Einstein Telescope or Cosmic Explorer. In this article, we provide a first comprehensive analysis of the LGWA science case including its multi-messenger aspects and lunar science with LGWA data. We also describe the scientific analyses of the Moon required to plan the LGWA mission.

Previously we demonstrated that the magnetorotational instability (MRI) grows vigorously in eccentric disks, much as it does in circular disks, and we investigated the nonlinear development of the eccentric MRI without vertical gravity. Here we explore how vertical gravity influences the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence stirred by the eccentric MRI. Similar to eccentric disks without vertical gravity, the ratio of Maxwell stress to pressure, or the Shakura--Sunyaev alpha parameter, remains ~0.01, and the local sign flip in the Maxwell stress persists. Vertical gravity also introduces two new effects. Strong vertical compression near pericenter amplifies reconnection and dissipation, weakening the magnetic field. Angular momentum transport by MHD stresses broadens the mass distribution over eccentricity at much faster rates than without vertical gravity; as a result, spatial distributions of mass and eccentricity can be substantially modified in just ~5 to 10 orbits. MHD stresses in the eccentric debris of tidal disruption events may power emission $\gtrsim$1 yr after disruption., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 4 appendices, submitted to ApJ

The duration of orbital decay induced by gravitational waves (GWs) is often the bottleneck of the evolutionary phases going from star formation to a merger. We show here that kicks imparted to the newly born compact object during the second collapse generically result in a GW merger time distribution behaving like $dN/d\log t \propto t^{2/7}$ at short durations, leading to ultrafast mergers. Namely, a nonnegligible fraction of neutron star binaries, formed in this way, will merge on a time scale as short as 10 Myr, and a small fraction will merge even on a time scale less than 10 kyr. The results can be applied to different types of compact binaries. We discuss here the implications for binary neutron star mergers. These include unique short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), eccentric and misaligned mergers, $r$-process enrichment in the very early Universe and in highly star-forming regions, and possible radio precursors. Interestingly, we conclude that among the few hundred short GRBs detected so far, a few must have formed via this ultrafast channel., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

The TeV observations of GRB~221009A provided us with a unique opportunity to analyze the contemporaneous phase in which both prompt and afterglow emissions are seen simultaneously. To describe this initial phase of Gamma-Ray Burst afterglows, we suggest a model for a blast wave with an intermittent energy supply. We treat the blast wave as a two-element structure. The central engine supplies energy to the inner part (shocked ejecta material) via the reverse shock. As the shocked ejecta material expands, its internal energy is transferred to the shocked external matter. We take into account the inertia of the shocked external material so that the pressure difference across this region determines the derivative of the blast wave's Lorentz factor. Applied to GRB~221009A, the model yields a very good fit to the observations of the entire TeV lightcurve except for three regions where there are excesses in the data with respect to the model. Those are well correlated with the three largest episodes of the prompt activity, and thus, we interpret them as the reverse shock emission. Our best-fit solution for GRB~221009A is an extremely narrow jet with an opening angle theta_j approx 0.07^o (500/\Gamma_0) propagating into a wind-like external medium. This extremely narrow angle is consistent with the huge isotropic equivalent energy of this burst, and its inverse jet break explains the very rapid rise of the afterglow. Interestingly, photon-photon annihilation doesn't play a decisive role in the best-fit model.

The tidal disruption event AT2018hyz was a regular optically detected one with no special prompt features. However, it suddenly displayed a fast-rising radio flare almost three years after the disruption. The flare is most naturally interpreted as arising from an off-axis relativistic jet. We didn't see the jet at early times as its emission was relativistically beamed away from us. However, we could see the radiation once the jet has slowed down due to interaction with the surrounding matter. Analysis of the radio data enabled estimates of the jet's kinetic energy and opening angle, as well as the conditions (size and magnetic field) within the radio-emitting region. We show here that such a jet satisfies the Hillas condition for the acceleration of UHECRs to the highest energies. We also show that the rate and total power of this event are consistent with the observed luminosity density of UHECRs. These results strongly support earlier suggestions that TDEs are the sources of UHECRs., Comment: Accepted for publication in JCAP. The revised version includes a rebuttle to Cendes et al., 2023 arXiv:2308.13595 and additional references to earlier work on the relation between UHECRs and TDEs

It has been long conjectured that a signature of Quantum Gravity will be Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) that could be observed at energies much lower than the Planck scale. One possible signature of LIV is an energy-dependent speed of photons. This can be tested with a distant transient source of very high-energy photons. We explore time-of-flight limits on LIV derived from LHAASO's observations of tens of thousands of TeV photons from GRB 221009A, the brightest gamma-ray burst of all time. For a linear ($n=1$) dependence of the photon velocity on energy, we find a lower limit on the subluminal (superluminal) LIV scale of ${5.9} (6.2) mpl$. These are comparable to the stringent limits obtained so far and, as an independent bound obtained from a different redshift, confirm their robustness. For a quadratic model ($n=2$, corresponding to $d=6$ SME operators), the limits, which are currently the best available with the time-of-flight method, are $5.8 (4.6) \times 10^{-8} mpl$. Our analysis uses the publicly available LHAASO data, which is only in the $0.2-7$ TeV range. Higher energy data would enable us to improve these limits by a factor of 3 for $n=1$ and by an order of magnitude for $n=2$., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

The Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) AT 2018hyz exhibited a delayed radio flare almost three years after the stellar disruption. Here we report new radio observations of the TDE AT 2018hyz with the AMI-LA and ATCA spanning from a month to more than four years after the optical discovery and 200 days since the last reported radio observation. We detected no radio detection from 30-220 days after the optical discovery in our observations at 15.5 GHz down to a $3\sigma$ level of < 0.14 mJy. The fast-rising, delayed, radio flare is observed in our radio data set and continues to rise almost ~1580 days after the optical discovery. We find that the delayed radio emission, first detected $972$ days after optical discovery, evolves as $t^{4.2 \pm 0.9}$, at 15.5 GHz. Here, we present an off-axis jet model that can explain the full set of radio observations. In the context of this model, we require a powerful narrow jet with an isotropic equivalent kinetic energy $E_{\rm k,iso} \sim 10^{55}$ erg, an opening angle of $ \rm \sim 7^{\circ}$, and a relatively large viewing angle of $ \rm \sim 42^{\circ}$, launched at the time of the stellar disruption. Within our framework, we find that the minimal collimated energy possible for an off-axis jet from AT 2018hyz is $E_k \geq 3 \times 10^{52}$ erg. Finally, we provide predictions based on our model for the light curve turnover time, and for the proper motion of the radio emitting source., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We present a common unifying macroscopic framework for precursors in relativistic shock waves. These precursors transfer energy and momentum from the hot downstream to the cold upstream, modifying the shock structure. Derishev & Piran (2016} have shown that in a steady state, there is a maximal fraction of the downstream energy flux that the precursor can carry. We show that at this critical value, the shock disappears, and the flow passes through a sonic point. This behavior resembles the classical Newtonian Rayleigh flow problem. At the critical value, the transition is unstable as perturbations in the upstream accumulate at the sonic point. Thus, if such a point is reached, the shock structure is drastically modified, and the flow becomes turbulent., Comment: Revised. Several minor points clarified. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Many studies have found that neutron star mergers leave a fraction of the stars' mass in bound orbits surrounding the resulting massive neutron star or black hole. This mass is a site of $r-$ process nucleosynthesis and can generate a wind that contributes to a kilonova. However, comparatively little is known about the dynamics determining its mass or initial structure. Here we begin to investigate these questions, starting with the origin of the disk mass. Using tracer particle as well as discretized fluid data from numerical simulations, we identify where in the neutron stars the debris came from, the paths it takes in order to escape from the neutron stars' interiors, and the times and locations at which its orbital properties diverge from those of neighboring fluid elements that end up remaining in the merged neutron star., Comment: Comments welcome!

One of the intriguing puzzles concerning Swift J1644+57, the first jetted tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered, is the constant increase in its jet energy, as implied by radio observations. During the first two hundred days the jet energy has increased by an order of magnitude. We suggest that the jet was viewed slightly off-axis. In this case, the apparent energy increase arises due to the slowing down of the jet and the corresponding broadening of its beaming cone. Using equipartition analysis, we infer an increasing jet energy as a larger region of the jet is observed. A simple off-axis model accounts nicely for the multi-wavelength radio observations, resolving this long-standing puzzle. The model allows us to self-consistently evolve the synchrotron signature from an off-axis jet as a function of time. It also allows us to estimate, for the first time, the beaming angle of the jet, $\theta_0 \approx 21^{\circ}$. Considering existing limits on the black hole mass, $\lesssim 10^{7}M_{\odot}$, this angle implies that the prompt phase beaming corrected luminosity of Swift J1644+57, $\sim 10^{47}$ergs/sec, was super Eddington. We also present a closure relation between the spectral and temporal flux for off-axis jets, which can be used to test whether a given radio transient is off-axis or not., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Published in MNRAS

Accretion of debris seems to be the natural mechanism to power the radiation emitted during a tidal disruption event (TDE), in which a supermassive black hole tears apart a star. However, this requires the prompt formation of a compact accretion disk. Here, using a fully relativistic global simulation for the long-term evolution of debris in a TDE with realistic initial conditions, we show that at most a tiny fraction of the bound mass enters such a disk on the timescale of observed flares. To "circularize" most of the bound mass entails an increase in the binding energy of that mass by a factor $\sim 30$; we find at most an order unity change. Our simulation suggests it would take a time scale comparable to a few tens of the characteristic mass fallback time to dissipate enough energy for "circularization". Instead, the bound debris forms an extended eccentric accretion flow with eccentricity $\simeq 0.4-0.5$ by $\sim 2$ fallback times. Although the energy dissipated in shocks in this large-scale flow is much smaller than the "circularization" energy, it matches the observed radiated energy very well. Nonetheless, the impact of shocks is not strong enough to unbind initially bound debris into an outflow., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, Submitted to ApJ, comments welcome!

Gamma-ray flares from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) show substantial variability on ultrafast timescales (i.e. shorter than the light crossing time of the AGN's supermassive black hole). We propose that ultrafast variability is a byproduct of the turbulent dissipation of the jet Poynting flux. Due to the intermittency of the turbulent cascade, the dissipation is concentrated in a set of reconnecting current sheets. Electrons energised by reconnection have a strong pitch angle anisotropy, i.e. their velocity is nearly aligned with the guide magnetic field. Then each current sheet produces a narrow radiation beam, which dominates the emission from the whole jet when it is directed towards the observer. The ultrafast variability is set by the light crossing time of a single current sheet, which is much shorter than the light crossing time of the whole emission region. The predictions of our model are: (i) The bolometric luminosity of ultrafast AGN flares is dominated by the inverse Compton (IC) emission, as the lower energy synchrotron emission is suppressed due to the pitch angle anisotropy. (ii) If the observed luminosity includes a non-flaring component, the variations of the synchrotron luminosity have a small amplitude. (iii) The synchrotron and IC emission are less variable at lower frequencies, as the cooling time of the radiating particles exceeds the light crossing time of the current sheet. Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of ultrafast AGN flares can test these predictions., Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in ApJL

One of the leading explanations for the origin of Fermi Bubbles is a past jet activity in the Galactic center supermassive black hole Sgr A$^*$. The claimed jets are often assumed to be perpendicular to the Galactic plane. Motivated by the orientation of pc-scale nuclear stellar disk and gas streams, and a low inclination of the accretion disk around Sgr A$^*$ inferred by the Event Horizon Telescope, we perform hydrodynamical simulations of nuclear jets significantly tilted relative to the Galactic rotation axis. The observed axisymmetry and hemisymmetry (north-south symmetry) of Fermi/eROSITA bubbles (FEBs) due to quasi-steady jets in Sgr A$^*$ can be produced if the jet had a super-Eddington power ($\gtrsim 5\times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$) for a short time (jet active period $\lesssim 6$ kyr) for a reasonable jet opening angle ($\lesssim 10^\circ$). Such powerful explosions are, however, incompatible with the observed O VIII/O VII line ratio towards the bubbles, even after considering electron-proton temperature non-equilibrium. We argue that the only remaining options for producing FEBs are i) a low-luminosity ($\approx 10^{40.5-41}$ erg s$^{-1}$)) magnetically dominated jet or accretion wind from the Sgr A$^*$, and ii) a SNe or TDE driven wind of a similar luminosity from the Galactic center., Comment: 12 pages. Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome

The equipartition analysis yields estimates of the radius and energy of synchrotron self-absorbed radio sources. Here we generalize this method to relativistic off-axis viewed emitters. We find that the Lorentz factor $\Gamma$ and the viewing angle $\theta$ cannot be determined independently but become degenerate along a trajectory of minimal energy solutions. The solutions are divided into on-axis and off-axis branches with the former reproducing the classical analysis. A relativistic source viewed off-axis can be disguised as an apparent Newtonian one. Applying this method to radio observations of several tidal disruption events (TDEs), we find that the radio flare of AT 2018hyz which was observed a few years after the optical discovery could have been produced by a relativistic off-axis jet with kinetic energy of $\sim10^{53}\,\rm erg$ that was launched around the time of discovery., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The gravitational waves from the binary neutron star merger GW170817 were accompanied by a multi-wavelength electromagnetic counterpart, which confirms the association of the merger with a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB). The afterglow observations implied that the event was accompanied by a narrow, $\sim 5~$deg, and powerful, $\sim 10^{50}$ erg, jet. We study the propagation of a Poynting flux-dominated jet within the merger ejecta (kinematic, neutrino-driven and MRI turbulence-driven) of a neutrino-radiation-GR-MHD simulation of two coalescing neutron stars. We find that the presence of a post-merger low-density/low-pressure polar cavity, that arose due to angular momentum conservation, is crucial to let the jet break out. At the same time the ejecta collimates the jet to a narrow opening angle. The collimated jet has a narrow opening angle of $\sim 4$-$7$ deg and an energy of $10^{49}$-$10^{50}~$erg, in line with the observations of GW170817 and other sGRBs., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted to ApJ Letters

Minuscule primordial black holes before the end and after inflation can serve as "time capsules" bringing back energy from the past to a later epoch when they evaporate. As these black holes behave like matter, while the rest of the Universe content behaves like radiation, the mass fraction of these black holes, that is tiny at formation, becomes significant later. If sufficiently small, these black holes will evaporate while the Universe is still radiation dominated. We revisit this process and point out that gravitons produced during the evaporation behave as ``dark radiation". If the initial black holes are uniformly distributed so will be the gravitons and in this case they will be free of Silk damping and avoid current limits on "dark radiation" scenarios. Seeds for such black holes can arise during the last phases of inflation. We show here that with suitable parameters, this background graviton field can resolve the Hubble tension. We present current observational constraints on this scenario and suggest upcoming observational tests to prove or refute it. Finally, we also elaborate on the graviton background produced by particle annihilation during the Planck era or shortly after inflation., Comment: Talk given by Tsvi Piran at the IWARA 2022 and RAGTIME24 conferences

Extreme tidal disruption events (eTDEs), which occur when a star passes very close to a supermassive black hole, may provide a way to observe a long-sought general relativistic effect: orbits that wind several times around a black hole and then leave. Through general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations, we show that such eTDEs are easily distinguished from most tidal disruptions, in which stars come close, but not so close, to the black hole. Following the stellar orbit, the debris in eTDEs is initially distributed in a crescent that quickly turns into tight spirals, from which some mass later falls back toward the black hole, while the remainder is ejected. Internal shocks within the infalling debris power the observed emission. The resulting light-curve rises rapidly to roughly the Eddington luminosity, maintains this level for between a few weeks and a year (depending on both the stellar mass and the black hole mass), and then drops. Most of its power is in thermal X-rays at a temperature $\sim (1-2)\times 10^{6}$ K ($\sim 100-200$ eV). The debris evolution and observational features of eTDEs are qualitatively different from ordinary TDEs, making eTDEs a new type of TDE. Although eTDEs are relatively rare for lower-mass black holes, most tidal disruptions around higher-mass black holes are extreme. Their detection offers a view of an exotic relativistic phenomenon previously inaccessible., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJL, movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX4B8TIQDj4&list=PLxLK3qI02cQdGdFe6zwBc_1sb-XDW-mPk

The acceleration of a jet to relativistic velocities produces a unique memory type gravitational waves (GW) signal: {\it Jet-GW}. I discuss here resent result concerning properties of these GWs and consider their detectability in current and proposed detectors. Classical sources are long and short Gamma-ray bursts as well as hidden jets in core-collapse supernovae. Detection of jet-GWs from these sources will require detectors, such as the proposed BBO, DECIGO and lunar based detectors, that will operate in the deciHz band. The current LVK detectors could detect jet-GWs from a Galactic SGR flare if it is sufficiently asymmetric. Once detected these signals could reveal information concerning jet acceleration and collimation that cannot be explored otherwise., Comment: Published in "Looking Beyond the Frontiers of Science" Dedicated to the 80th Birthday of KK Phua, Edited By: L Brink , N-P Chang , D H Feng, K Fujikawa, M-L Ge, L C Kwek, C H Oh and S R Wadia, World Scientific Publications, July 2022. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2107.12418

Many stripped envelope supernovae (SNe) present a signature of high-velocity material responsible for broad absorption lines in the observed spectrum. These include SNe that are associated with long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) and low-luminosity GRBs (llGRBs), and SNe that are not associated with GRBs. Recently it was suggested that this high velocity material originates from a cocoon that is driven by a relativistic jet. In LGRBs this jet breaks out successfully from the stellar envelope, while in llGRBs and SNe that are not associated with GRBs the jet is choked. Here we use numerical simulations to explore the velocity distribution of an outflow that is driven by a choked jet and its dependence on the jet and progenitor properties. We find that in all cases where the jet is not choked too deep within the star, the outflow carries a roughly constant amount of energy per logarithmic scale of proper velocity over a wide range of velocities, which depends mostly on the cocoon volume at the time of its breakout. This is a universal property of jets driven outflows, which does not exist in outflows of spherically symmetric explosions or when the jets are choked very deep within the star. We therefore conclude that jets that are choked (not too deep) provide a natural explanation to the fast material seen in the early spectra of stripped envelope SNe that are not associated with LGRBs and that properties of this material could reveal information on the otherwise hidden jets., Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS

{"Bare collapse", the collapse of a bare stellar core to a neutron star with a very small mass ejection links two seemingly unrelated phenomena: the formation of binary neutron star (BNS) systems and the observations of fast and luminous optical transients. We carried out calculations of the collapse due to electron-capture of both evolutionary and synthetic isentropic bare stellar cores. We find that the collapse results in {the formation of} a light ~ 1.3 solar mass neutron star and {an} ejection of ~0.1 solar mass at ~0.1c. The outer shell of the ejecta is composed of Ni56 that can power an ultra-stripped supernova. The models we explored can explain most of the observed fast optical flares but not the brightest ones. Collapse of cores surrounded by somewhat more massive envelopes can produce larger amounts of Ni56 and explain brighter flares. Alternatively, those events can arise due to interaction of the very energetic ejecta with winds that were ejected from the progenitor a few days before the collapse., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) has been extensively studied in circular magnetized disks, and its ability to drive accretion has been demonstrated in a multitude of scenarios. There are reasons to expect eccentric magnetized disks to also exist, but the behavior of the MRI in these disks remains largely uncharted territory. Here we present the first simulations that follow the nonlinear development of the MRI in eccentric disks. We find that the MRI in eccentric disks resembles circular disks in two ways, in the overall level of saturation and in the dependence of the detailed saturated state on magnetic topology. However, in contrast with circular disks, the Maxwell stress in eccentric disks can be negative in some disk sectors, even though the integrated stress is always positive. The angular momentum flux raises the eccentricity of the inner parts of the disk and diminishes the same of the outer parts. Because material accreting onto a black hole from an eccentric orbit possesses more energy than material tracing the innermost stable circular orbit, the radiative efficiency of eccentric disks may be significantly lower than circular disks. This may resolve the "inverse energy problem" seen in many tidal disruption events., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 appendices, published in ApJ, movies at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlhsZldWhMs6OIvfFxf5DZy9UbpimeGGt

Observations of TeV emission from early gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows revealed the long sought for inverse Compton (IC) upscattering of the lower energy synchrotron. However, it turned out that the long hoped for ability to easily interpret the synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) spectra didn't materialize. The TeV emission is in the Klein-Nishina (KN) regime and the simple Thomson regime SSC spectrum is modified, complicating the scene. We describe here a methodology to obtain an analytic approximation to an observed spectrum and infer the conditions at the emitting region. The methodology is general and can be used in any such source. As a test case, we apply it to the observations of GRB 190114C. We find that the procedure of fitting the model parameters using the analytic SSC spectrum suffers from some generic problems. However, at the same time, it conveniently gives a useful insight into the conditions that shape the spectrum. Once we introduce a correction to the standard KN approximation, the best fit solution is consistent with the one found in detailed numerical simulations. As in the numerical analysis, we find a family of solutions that provide a good approximation to the data and satisfy roughly $B\propto \Gamma^{-3}$ between the magnetic field and the bulk Lorentz factor, and we provide a tentative explanation why such a family arises., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS in press, updated to match the accepted version

The shock breakout emission is the first light that emerges from a supernova. In the spherical case it is characterized by a brief UV flash. In an axisymmetric, non-spherical prolate explosion, the shock first breaches the surface along the symmetry axis, then peels around to larger angles, producing a breakout light curve which may differ substantially from the spherically symmetric case. We study the emergence of a non-relativistic, bipolar shock from a spherical star, and estimate the basic properties of the associated bolometric shock breakout signal. We identify four possible classes of breakout light curves, depending on the degree of asphericity. Compared to spherical breakouts, we find that the main distinguishing features of significantly aspherical breakouts are 1) a longer and fainter initial breakout flash and 2) an extended phase of slowly-declining, or even rising, emission which is produced as ejecta flung out by the oblique breakout expand and cool. We find that the breakout flash has a maximum duration of roughly $\sim R_*/v_{\rm bo}$ where $R_*$ is the stellar radius and $v_{\rm bo}$ is the velocity of the fastest-moving ejecta. For a standard Wolf--Rayet progenitor, the duration of the X-ray flash seen in SN 2008D exceeds this limit, and the same holds true for the prompt X-ray emission of low-luminosity GRBs such as GRB 060218. This suggests that these events cannot be explained by an aspherical explosion within a typical Wolf--Rayet star, implying that they originate from non-standard progenitors with larger breakout radii., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The tidal disruption event AT2019dsg was observed from radio to X-rays and was possibly accompanied by a high-energy neutrino. Previous interpretations have focused on continued injection by a central engine as the source of energy for radio emission. We show that continuous energy injection is unnecessary; the radio data can be explained by a single ejection of plasma that supplies all the energy needed. To support this assertion, we analyze the synchrotron self-absorbed spectra in terms of the equipartition model. Similar to previous analyses, we find that the energy in the radio-emitting region increases approximately $\propto t^{0.7}$ and the lengthscale of this region grows $\propto t$ at a rate $\simeq0.06c$. This event resembles the earliest stage of a supernova remnant: because the ejected mass is much greater than the shocked external mass, its velocity remains unchanged, while the energy in shocked gas grows with time. The radio-emitting material gains energy from the outflow, not continuing energy injection by the central object. Although energy injection from an accreting BH cannot be completely excluded, the energy injection rate is very different from the fallback luminosity, and maintaining constant outflow velocity requires fine-tuning demanding further physical explanation. If the neutrino association is real, the energy injection needed is much greater than for the radio emission, suggesting that the detected neutrino did not arise from the radio-emitting region., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Non-spherical rapid acceleration of mass (or energy) to a relativistic velocity is a natural source of gravitational radiation. Such conditions arise in both long and short gamma-ray bursts whose central engine ejects relativistic jets. The resulting gravitational wave signal is of a memory type, rising to a finite level (of order 4 G E/r) over a duration that corresponds to the longer of either the injection time and the acceleration time of the jet. We explore the properties of such signals and their potential detectability. Unfortunately, the expected signals are below the frequency band of Advanced LIGO-Virgo-Kagra, and above LISA. However, they fall within the range of the planned BBO and DECIGO. While current sensitivity is marginal for the detection of jet gravitational wave signals from GRBs, hidden relativistic jets that exist within some core collapse SNe could be detected. Such a detection would reveal the acceleration mechanism and the activity of the central engine, which cannot be explored directly in any other way, Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

Radio flares from tidal disruption events (TDEs) are generally interpreted as synchrotron emission arising from the interaction of an outflow with the surrounding circumnuclear medium (CNM). We generalize the common equipartition analysis to be applicable in cases lacking a clear spectral peak or even with just an upper limit. We show that, for detected events, there is a lower limit on the combination of the outflow's velocity $v$ and solid angle $\Omega$, $\simeq v\Omega^{a}$ (with $a \simeq 0.5$) that constrains the outflow's properties. Considering several possible outflow components accompanying TDEs, we find that: Isotropic outflows such as disk winds with $v\sim10^4\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and $\Omega = 4 \pi$ can easily produces the observed flares; The bow shock of the unbound debris has a wedge-like geometry and it must be geometrically thick with $\Omega\gtrsim1$ and a fraction of its mass ($\gtrsim 0.01 \,M_{\odot}$), has to move at $v \gtrsim 2 \times 10^4\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$; Conical Newtonian outflows such as jets can also be a radio source but both their velocity and the CNM density should be larger than those of isotropic winds by a factor of $\sim(\Omega/4\pi)^{-0.5}$. Our limits on the CNM densities are typically 30-100 times larger than those found by previous analysis that ignored non-relativistic electrons that do not emit synchrotron radiation. We show that unless $v$ and $\Omega$ are known radio observation alone cannot determine the CNM density. We also find that late (a few years after the TDE) radio upper-limits rule out energetic, $\sim 10^{51-52}\,\rm erg$, relativistic jets like the one observed in TDE Sw J1644+57, implying that such jets are rare., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The afterglow of GRB~190114C has been observed at {60-1200~s} after the burst in the {sub-TeV range} by the {MAGIC Cherenkov} telescope. The simultaneous observations in X-ray range, which is presumed to be of synchrotron origin, and in sub-TeV range, where the emission is presumed to be inverse Compton, provide new stringent constraints on the conditions within the emitting regions {and their evolution in time}. While the additional data contain a lot of new information, it turns out that fitting both the X-ray and the TeV emission, is much more complicated than what was originally anticipated. We find that optical flux measurements provide important complementary information that in combination with TeV measurements breaks degeneracy in the parameter space. We present here a numerical fit to the multi-wavelength observed spectrum using a new code that calculates the single-zone synchrotron including self-Compton emission taking into account the exact Klein-Nishina cross-sections as well as pair production via absorption of the high-energy photons inside the emitting zone and the emission from the resulting secondary pairs. We also present a revised set of single zone parameters and a method for fitting the data to the observations. Our model for GRB~190114C that fits all the observations, from the optical data point to the sub-TeV range, suggests that it is in the fast cooling regime. The inferred parameters for observations {at two separate moments of time} show significant deviations from some of the common expectations in afterglow modeling but are all consistent with the predictions of the {pair-balance} model.

Accretion disks whose matter follows eccentric orbits can arise in multiple astrophysical situations. Unlike circular orbit disks, the vertical gravity in eccentric disks varies around the orbit. In this paper, we investigate some of the dynamical effects of this varying gravity on the vertical structure using $1D$ hydrodynamics simulations of individual gas columns assumed to be mutually non-interacting. We find that time-dependent gravitational pumping generically creates shocks near pericenter; the energy dissipated in the shocks is taken from the orbital energy. Because the kinetic energy per unit mass in vertical motion near pericenter can be large compared to the net orbital energy, the shocked gas can be heated to nearly the virial temperature, and some of it becomes unbound. These shocks affect larger fractions of the disk mass for larger eccentricity and/or disk aspect ratio. If the orbit can be maintained despite orbital energy loss, diverse initial structures evolve in only a few orbits so that they follow a limit-cycle characterized by a low-entropy midplane and a much higher entropy outer layer. In favorable cases (such as the tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes), these effects could be a potentially important energy dissipation and mass loss mechanism., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) taking place in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are different from ordinary TDEs. In these events, the returning tidal debris stream drills through the pre-existing AGN accretion disk near the stream pericenter, destroying the inner disk in the process, and then intersects with the disk a second time at radii ranging from a few to hundreds of times the pericenter distance. The debris dynamics of such TDEs, and hence their appearance, are distinct from ordinary TDEs. Here we explore the observational signatures of this "second impact" of the stream with the disk. Strong shocks form as the dilute stream is stopped by the denser disk. Compton cooling of the shocked material produces hard X-rays, even soft gamma-rays, with most of the energy emitted between ~10 keV and 1 MeV. The luminosity follows the mass-return rate, peaking between ~$10^{42}$ and $10^{44}$ erg/s. The X-ray hardness and the smoothness of the light curve provide possible means for distinguishing the second impact from ordinary AGN flares, which exhibit softer spectra and more irregular light curves., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ

The discovery of optical/UV tidal disruption events (TDEs) was surprising. The expectation was that, upon returning to the pericenter, the stellar-debris stream will form a compact disk that will emit soft X-rays. Indeed the first TDEs were discovered in this energy band. A common explanation for the optical/UV events is that surrounding optically-thick matter reprocesses the disk's X-ray emission and emits it from a large photosphere. If accretion follows the super-Eddington mass infall rate it would inevitably result in an energetic outflow, providing naturally the reprocessing matter. We describe here a new method to estimate, using the observed luminosity and temperature, the mass and energy of outflows from optical transients. When applying this method to a sample of supernovae our estimates are consistent with a more detailed hydrodynamic modeling. For the current sample of a few dozen optical TDEs the observed luminosity and temperature imply outflows that are significantly more massive than typical stellar masses, posing a problem to this common reprocessing picture., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Neutron star mergers produce a substantial amount of fast-moving ejecta, expanding outwardly for years after the merger. The interaction of these ejecta with the surrounding medium may produce a weak isotropic radio remnant, detectable in relatively nearby events. We use late-time radio observations of short duration gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) to constrain this model. Two samples of events were studied: four sGRBs that are possibly in the local (<200 Mpc) universe were selected to constrain the remnant non-thermal emission from the sub-relativistic ejecta, whereas 17 sGRBs at cosmological distances were used to constrain the presence of a proto-magnetar central engine, possibly re-energezing the merger ejecta. We consider the case of GRB~170817A/GW170817, and find that in this case the early radio emission may be quenched by the jet blast-wave. In all cases, for ejecta mass range of M_ej \lesssim 10^{-2} (5 * 10^{-2}) M_sun, we can rule out very energetic merger ejecta E_ej \gtrsim 5 * 10^{52}(10^{53}) erg, thus excluding the presence of a powerful magnetar as a merger remnant., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for pubblication in MNRAS

We describe how the various outcomes of stellar tidal disruption give rise to observable radiation. We separately consider the cases where gas circularizes rapidly into an accretion disc, as well as the case when shocked debris streams provide the observable emission without having fully circularized. For the rapid circularization case, we describe how outflows, absorption by reprocessing layers, and Comptonization can cause the observed radiation to depart from that of a bare disc, possibly giving rise to the observed optical/UV emission along with soft X-rays from the disc. If, instead, most of the debris follows highly eccentric orbits for a significant time, many properties of the observed optical/UV emission can be explained by the scale of those eccentric orbits and the shocks embedded in the debris flow near orbital apocenter. In this picture, soft X-ray emission at early times results from the smaller amount of debris mass deflected into a compact accretion disc by weak shocks near the stellar pericenter. A general proposal for the near-constancy of the ultraviolet/optical color temperatures is provided, by linking it to incomplete thermalization of radiation in the atmosphere of the emitting region. We also briefly discuss the radio signals from the interaction of unbound debris and jets with the black hole environment., Comment: Accepted for publication in Springer Space Science Reviews. Chapter in ISSI review "The Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes" vol. 79

The flare produced when a star is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole holds potential as a diagnostic of both the black hole mass and the star mass. We propose a new method to realize this potential based upon a physical model of optical/UV light production in which shocks near the apocenters of debris orbits dissipate orbital energy, which is then radiated from that region. Measurement of the optical/UV luminosity and color temperature at the peak of the flare leads directly to the two masses. The black hole mass depends mostly on the temperature observed at peak luminosity, while the mass of the disrupted star depends mostly on the peak luminosity. We introduce {\sc TDEmass}, a method to infer the black hole and stellar masses given these two input quantities. Using {\sc TDEmass}, we find, for 21 well-measured events, black hole masses between $5\times 10^5$ and $10^7 M_\odot$ and disrupted stars with initial masses between 0.6 and $13M_\odot$. An open-source {\sc python}-based tool for {\sc TDEmass} is available at https://github.com/taehoryu/TDEmass.git., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

One of the key properties of any binary is its viewing angle (i.e., inclination), $\theta_{\rm obs}$. In binary neutron star (BNS) mergers it is of special importance due to the role that it plays in the measurement of the Hubble constant, $H_0$. The opening angle of the jet that these mergers launch, $\theta_j$, is also of special interest. Following the detection of the first BNS merger, GW170817, there were numerous attempts to estimate these angles using the afterglow light curve, finding a wide range of values. Here we provide a simple formula for the ratio $\theta_{\rm obs}/\theta_j$ based on the afterglow light curve and show that this is the only quantity that can be determined from the light curve alone. Namely, it is impossible to determine each of the angles separately without additional information. Our result explains the inconsistency of the values found by the various studies of GW170817 that were largely driven by the different priors taken in each study. Among the additional information that can be used to estimate $\theta_{\rm obs}$ and $\theta_j$, the most useful is a VLBI measurement of the afterglow image superluminal motion. An alternative is an identification of the afterglow transition to the sub-relativistic phase. These observations are possible only for mergers observed at small viewing angles, whose afterglow is significantly brighter than the detector's threshold. We discuss the implications of these results to measurements of $H_0$ using GW observations. We show that while the viewing angle will be measured only in a small fraction of future BNS mergers, it can significantly reduce the uncertainty in $H_0$ in each one of these events, possibly to a level of 4-5\%. A minority of the mergers with high precision measurements of this kind may dominate in the future the precision in which $H_0$ will be measured using this method., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Fast ejecta expelled in binary neutron star (NS) mergers or energetic supernovae (SNe) should produce late-time synchrotron radio emission as the ejecta shocks into the surrounding ambient medium. Models for such radio flares typically assume the ejecta expands into an unperturbed interstellar medium (ISM). However, it is also well-known that binary NS mergers and broad-lined Ic SNe can harbor relativistic jetted outflows. In this work, we show that such jets shock the ambient ISM ahead of the ejecta, thus evacuating the medium into which the ejecta subsequently collides. Using an idealized spherically-symmetric model, we illustrate that this inhibits the ejecta radio flare at early times $t < t_{\rm col} \approx 12 \, {\rm yr} \, (E_{\rm j}/10^{49} \, {\rm erg})^{1/3} (n/1 \, {\rm cm}^{-3})^{-1/3} (v_{\rm ej}/0.1c)^{-5/3}$ where $E_{\rm j}$ is the jet energy, $n$ the ISM density, and $v_{\rm ej}$ the ejecta velocity. We also show that this can produce a sharply peaked enhancement in the light-curve at $t = t_{\rm col}$. This has implications for radio observations of GW170817 and future binary NS mergers, gamma-ray burst (GRB) SNe, decade-long radio transients such as FIRST J1419, and possibly other events where a relativistic outflow precedes a slower-moving ejecta. Future numerical work will extend these analytic estimates and treat the multi-dimensional nature of the problem., Comment: submitted to MNRAS; comments welcome!

The Gravity Collaboration detected a near-infrared hotspot moving around Sgr A* during the 2018 July 22 flare. They fitted the partial loop the hotspot made on the sky with a circular Keplerian orbit of radius $\simeq7.5\,r_{\rm g}$ around the supermassive black hole (BH), where $r_{\rm g}$ is the gravitational radius. However, because the hotspot traversed the loop in a short time, models in which the hotspot tracks the motion of some fluid element tend to produce a best-fit trajectory smaller than the observed loop. This is true for a circular Keplerian orbit, even when BH spin is accounted for, and for motion along a RIAF streamline. A marginally bound geodesic suffers from the same problem; in addition, it is not clear what the origin of an object following the geodesic would be. The observed hotspot motion is more likely a pattern motion. Circular motion with $r\simeq12.5\,r_{\rm g}$ and a super-Keplerian speed $\simeq0.8\,c$ is a good fit. Such motion must be pattern motion because it cannot be explained by physical forces. The pattern speed is compatible with magnetohydrodynamic perturbations, provided that the magnetic field is sufficiently strong. Circular pattern motion of radius $\sim20\, r_{\rm g}$ on a plane above the BH is an equally good alternative; in this case, the hotspot may be caused by a precessing outflow interacting with a surrounding disk. As all our fits have relatively large radii, we cannot constrain the BH spin using these observations., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The black hole of an active galactic nucleus is encircled by an accretion disk. The surface density of the disk is always too low to affect the tidal disruption of a star, but it can be high enough that a vigorous interaction results when the debris stream returns to pericenter and punches through the disk. Shocks excited in the disk dissipate the kinetic energy of the disk interior to the impact point and expedite inflow toward the black hole. Radiatively efficient disks with luminosity $\gtrsim10^{-3}$ Eddington have a high enough surface density that the initial stream-disk interaction leads to energy dissipation at a super-Eddington rate. Because of the rapid inflow, only part of this dissipated energy emerges as radiation, while the rest is advected into the black hole. Dissipation, inflow, and cooling balance to keep the bolometric luminosity at an Eddington-level plateau whose duration is tens of days, with an almost linear dependence on stellar mass. After the plateau, the luminosity decreases in proportion to the disk surface density, with a power-law index between $-3$ and $-2$ at earlier times, and possibly a steeper index at later times., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 appendix, accepted by ApJ

Tidal disruption events (TDEs), events in which a star passes very close to a supermassive black hole, are generally imagined as leading either to the star's complete disruption or to its passage directly into the black hole. In the former case it is widely believed that in all cases the bound portion of the debris quickly "circularizes" due to relativistic apsidal precession, i.e., forms a compact accretion disk, and emits a flare of standardized lightcurve and spectrum. We show here that TDEs are more diverse and can be grouped into several distinct categories on the basis of stellar pericenter distance $r_p$; we calculate the relative frequency of these categories. In particular, because rapid circularization requires $r_p \lesssim 10r_g$ ($r_g \equiv GM_{\rm BH}/c^2$), it can happen in only a minority of total disruptions, $\lesssim 1/4$ when the black hole has mass $M_{\rm BH} = 10^6 M_\odot$. For larger pericenter distances, $10 < r_p/r_g < 27$ (for $M_{\rm BH}=10^6M_\odot$), main sequence stars are completely disrupted, but the bound debris orbits are highly eccentric and possess semimajor axes $\sim 100\times$ the scale of the expected compact disk. Partial disruptions with fractional mass-loss $\gtrsim 10\%$ should occur with a rate similar to that of total disruptions; for fractional mass-loss $\gtrsim 50\%$, the rate is $\approx 1/3$ as large. Partial disruptions -- which must precede total disruptions when the stars' angular momenta evolve in the "empty loss-cone" regime -- change the orbital energy by factors $\gtrsim O(1)$. Remnants of partial disruptions are in general far from thermal equilibrium. Depending on the orbital energy of the remnant and conditions within the stellar cluster surrounding the SMBH, it may return after hundreds or thousands of years and be fully disrupted, or it may rejoin the stellar cluster., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

Using a suite of fully relativistic hydrodynamic simulations applied to main-sequence stars with realistic internal density profiles, we examine full and partial tidal disruptions across a wide range of black hole mass ($10^{5}\leq M_{\rm BH}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\leq 5\times 10^{7}$) and stellar mass ($0.3 \leq M_{\star} /\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\leq 3$) as larger $M_{\rm BH}$ leads to stronger relativistic effects. For fixed $M_{\star}$, as $M_{\rm BH}$ increases, the ratio of the maximum pericenter distance yielding full disruptions ($\mathcal{R}_{\rm t}$) to its Newtonian prediction rises rapidly, becoming triple the Newtonian value for $M_{\rm BH} = 5\times10^{7}~{\rm M}_\odot$, while the ratio of the energy width of the stellar debris for full disruptions to the Newtonian prediction decreases steeply, resulting in a factor of two correction at $M_{\rm BH} = 5 \times 10^7~{\rm M}_\odot$. We find that for partial disruptions, the fractional remnant mass for a given ratio of the pericenter to $\mathcal{R}_{\rm t}$ is higher for larger $M_{\rm BH}$. These results have several implications. As $M_{\rm BH}$ increases above $\sim 10^7~{\rm M}_\odot$, the cross section for complete disruptions is suppressed by competition with direct capture. However, the cross section ratio for partial to complete disruptions depends only weakly on $M_{\rm BH}$. The relativistic correction to the debris energy width delays the time of peak mass-return rate and diminishes the magnitude of the peak return rate. For $M_{\rm BH} \gtrsim 10^7~{\rm M}_\odot$, the $M_{\rm BH}$-dependence of the full disruption cross section and the peak mass-return rate and time is influenced more by relativistic effects than by Newtonian dynamics., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

This is the second in a series of papers presenting the results of fully general relativistic simulations of stellar tidal disruptions in which the stars' initial states are realistic main-sequence models. In the first paper (Paper I), we gave an overview of this program and discussed the principal observational implications of our work. Here we describe our calculational method and provide details about the outcomes of full disruptions, focusing on the stellar mass dependence of the outcomes for a black hole of mass $10^{6}\rm{M}_{\odot}$. We consider eight different stellar masses, from $0.15~{\rm M}_\odot$ to $10~{\rm M}_\odot$. We find that, relative to the traditional order-of-magnitude estimate $r_{\rm t}$, the physical tidal radius of low-mass stars ($M_{\star} \lesssim 0.7~ {\rm M}_\odot$) is larger by tens of percent, while for high-mass stars ($M_{\star} \gtrsim1~ {\rm M}_\odot$) it is smaller by a factor 2--2.5. The traditional estimate of the range of energies found in the debris is $\approx 1.4\times$ too large for low-mass stars, but is a factor $\sim 2$ too small for high-mass stars; in addition, the energy distribution for high-mass stars has significant wings. For all stars undergoing tidal encounters, we find that mass-loss continues for many stellar vibration times because the black hole's tidal gravity competes with the instantaneous stellar gravity at the star's surface until the star has reached a distance from the black hole $\sim O(10)r_{\rm t}$., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, Supersedes arXiv:1907.11883

In this paper, the third in this series, we continue our study of tidal disruption events of main-sequence stars by a non-spinning $10^{6}~\rm{M}_\odot$ supermassive black hole. Here we focus on the stellar mass dependence of the outcomes of partial disruptions. As the encounter becomes weaker, the debris mass is increasingly concentrated near the outer edges of the energy distribution. As a result, the mass fallback rate can deviate substantially from a $t^{-5/3}$ power-law, becoming more like a single peak with a tail declining as $t^{-p}$ with $p\simeq2-5$. Surviving remnants are spun-up in the prograde direction and are hotter than main sequence stars of the same mass. Their specific orbital energy is $\simeq10^{-3}\times$ that of the debris, but of either sign with respect to the black hole potential, while their specific angular momentum is close to that of the original star. Even for strong encounters, remnants have speeds at infinity relative to the black hole potential $\lesssim 300$ km s$^{-1}$, so they are unable to travel far out into the galactic bulge. The remnants most deeply bound to the black hole go through a second tidal disruption event upon their first return to pericenter; if they have not thermally relaxed, they will be completely disrupted., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, Supersedes arXiv:1909.04041

This paper introduces a series of papers presenting a quantitative theory for the tidal disruption of main sequence stars by supermassive black holes. Using fully general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations and MESA-model initial conditions, we explore the pericenter-dependence of tidal disruption properties for eight stellar masses ($0.15 \leq M_*/M_\odot \leq 10$) and six black hole masses ($10^5 \leq M_{BH}/M_\odot \leq 5 \times 10^7$). We present here the results most relevant to observations. The effects of internal stellar structure and relativity decouple for both the disruption cross section and the characteristic energy width of the debris. Moreover, the full disruption cross section is almost independent of $M_*$ for $M_*/M_\odot \lesssim 3$. Independent of $M_*$, relativistic effects increase the critical pericenter distance for full disruptions by up to a factor $\sim 3$ relative to the Newtonian prediction. The probability of a direct capture is also independent of $M_*$; at $M_{BH}/M_\odot \simeq 5 \times 10^6$ this probability is equal to that of a complete disruption. The width of the debris energy distribution $\Delta E$ can differ from the standard estimate by factors from 0.35 to 2, depending on $M_*$ and $M_{BH}$, implying a corresponding change in the characteristic mass-return timescale. The "frozen-in approximation" is inconsistent with $\Delta E$, and mass-loss continues over a long span of time. We provide analytic forms, suitable for use in both event rate estimates and parameter inference, to describe all these trends. For partial disruptions, we find a nearly-universal relation between the star's angular momentum and the fraction of $M_*$ remaining. Within the "empty loss-cone" regime, partial disruptions must precede full disruptions. These partial disruptions can drastically affect the rate and appearance of subsequent total disruptions., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, Supersedes arXiv:1907.08205

Recently Venumadhav et al. (2019) proposed a new pipeline to analyze LIGO-Virgo's O1-O2 data and discovered eight new binary black hole (BBH) mergers, including a high effective spin, chi_{eff}, one. This discovery sheds new light on the origin of the observed BBHs and the dynamical capture vs. field binaries debate. Using a new statistical approach, we show that, while isotropic models are not ruled out, the observed chi_{eff} distribution favors field binaries, whose chi_{eff} is determined by tidal forces and wind losses, over capture. However, given the current limited sample size, capture scenarios (isotropic models) cannot be ruled out. Observations of roughly a hundred merges will enable us to distinguish between the different formation scenarios. However, if as expected, both formation channels operate it may be difficult to resolve their exact fraction., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ