Abstract
Tidal disruption events involve numerous physical processes (fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, radiation transport, self-gravity, general relativistic dynamics) in highly nonlinear ways, and, because TDEs are transients by definition, frequently in non-equilibrium states. For these reasons, numerical solution of the relevant equations can be an essential tool for studying these events. In this chapter, we present a summary of the key problems of the field for which simulations offer the greatest promise and identify the capabilities required to make progress on them. We then discuss what has been—and what cannot be—done with existing numerical methods. We close with an overview of what methods now under development may do to expand our ability to understand these events.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by: NSF Grant AST-1715032 and Simons Foundation Grant 559794 (JHK); by NSF Grant PHY-1748958 (YJ); and by NASA Grant NNX16AI40G (PJA). We also thank the International Space Science Institute for hospitality.
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The Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes
Edited by Peter G. Jonker, Sterl Phinney, Elena Maria Rossi, Sjoert van Velzen, Iair Arcavi and Maurizio Falanga
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Krolik, J.H., Armitage, P.J., Jiang, Y. et al. Future Simulations of Tidal Disruption Events. Space Sci Rev 216, 88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00680-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00680-z