Dec 16, 2020

Speaker: Giorgos Leloudas (Technical University of Denmark)

Title: Tidal disruption of stars around supermassive black holes: from individual events to samples

Abstract: When a star crosses the tidal radius of a supermassive black hole it will be torn apart. Such events are known as tidal disruption events (TDEs) and they are accompanied by a transient flare of radiation. The last years we have experienced a tremendous increase in the number of UV/optical TDEs discovered by transient surveys. I will present an overview of recent developments in this field focusing on spectroscopy. The optical spectra of TDEs are dominated by H and/or He lines but demonstrate an increasing degree of diversity, including the discovery of Bowen lines, Fe II lines, peculiar features and more. In addition, I will present the first spectral polarimetry of a sample of TDEs.