2024 February 10 | Yihan Wang, Douglas N. C. Lin, Bing Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu
The paper explores the enhanced rate of tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) through the interaction between the AGN disk and retrograde stars within nuclear star clusters (NSCs). The authors propose that the disk-capture process can significantly amplify the TDE rate, providing a potential explanation for the frequent transitions observed in changing-look AGNs. They investigate the interaction between the accretion disk and retrograde stars, leading to rapid TDEs within a condensed time frame. Through detailed calculations, they derive time-dependent TDE rates for both relaxation-induced and disk-captured TDEs. The analysis reveals that the disk-captured TDE rate can be several orders of magnitude higher than the relaxation-induced rate during the AGN phase, offering a mechanism to explain the enhanced high-energy variability characteristic of changing-look AGNs. The findings suggest that the TDE rate in AGNs can be much higher than in quiescent galaxies, potentially explaining the observed high incidence of repeating changing-look phenomena and the elevated fraction of changing-look AGNs.The paper explores the enhanced rate of tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) through the interaction between the AGN disk and retrograde stars within nuclear star clusters (NSCs). The authors propose that the disk-capture process can significantly amplify the TDE rate, providing a potential explanation for the frequent transitions observed in changing-look AGNs. They investigate the interaction between the accretion disk and retrograde stars, leading to rapid TDEs within a condensed time frame. Through detailed calculations, they derive time-dependent TDE rates for both relaxation-induced and disk-captured TDEs. The analysis reveals that the disk-captured TDE rate can be several orders of magnitude higher than the relaxation-induced rate during the AGN phase, offering a mechanism to explain the enhanced high-energy variability characteristic of changing-look AGNs. The findings suggest that the TDE rate in AGNs can be much higher than in quiescent galaxies, potentially explaining the observed high incidence of repeating changing-look phenomena and the elevated fraction of changing-look AGNs.