Theoretical Insights into Tidal Disruption Events: Rates, Accretion, Emission, and Feedback Across Black Hole Mass Scales

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are among the most fascinating astronomical phenomena, offering a unique probe into the properties of massive black holes and the nuclear environments of galaxies. In this talk, I will present results from theoretical calculations of the realistic rates of TDEs for both supermassive and intermediate-mass black holes. These results reveal how TDE rates depend on black hole mass, stellar dynamics, and galactic environments. I will also show state-of-the-art simulations of TDE accretion, outflows and emissions, demonstrating how these processes produce the diverse emission features we observe, including Bowen fluorescence lines. Finally, I will discuss the broader implications of TDEs for black hole growth, particularly in the early universe, and their role in shaping galactic evolution. By exploring these results, we can better understand the physics of TDEs and their critical role in the growth of black holes and the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time.



Speaker: 
Lixin Dai (HKU)
Place: 
KIAA-auditorium
Host: 
Kohei Inayoshi
Time: 
Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 3:30PM to Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 4:30PM
Biography: 
Lixin Dai is an associate professor in the Department of Physics of the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Dai received her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University. She was a joint postdoc fellow at the Yale University and University of Chile, and then a research associate at the University of Maryland. She joined the University of Copenhagen as an assistant professor before joining the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are mainly in theoretical and computational high-energy and time-domain astrophysics, with a focus on black hole accretion disks and jets, tidal disruption events, and their connections to galaxies. She currently co-chairs the TDE & AGN science topical panel of the Einstein Probe Telescope.