Dec 11 – 15, 2023
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute
Asia/Shanghai timezone

Quasi-periodic eruptions from stars in mildly eccentric orbits

Dec 14, 2023, 4:40 PM
25m
Hall # 8

Hall # 8

Invited/Solicited talk in mini-symposium Cosmic Explosions...

Speaker

Wenbin Lu (UC Berkeley)

Description

We propose that quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) in galactic nuclei are produced by a low-mass main-sequence star in a mildly eccentric (e ~ 0.5) orbit. We argue that the QPE emission is powered by circularization shocks, but not directly by black hole accretion. The stellar orbits needed to explain QPEs can be efficiently created by the Hills breakup of tight stellar binaries.

Primary authors

Wenbin Lu (UC Berkeley) Prof. Eliot Quataert (Princeton University)

Presentation materials