The role of electromagnetism in tidal disruption events

Abstract

Tidal disruption events are characterized by the prompt release of very high energy electromagnetic radiation, which rapidly carries away a significant fraction of mass-energy. The time scale od prompt release is quite comparable to the time scale of gravitational collapse. We suggest that generation of very high energy radiation from pulsar nebulae may be an example of the relativistic coupling between gravity and electromagnetism. The main ingredient of our picture comes from the observation that the electron - ion energy exchange time scale is much longer than the electron ion energy exchange time scale, which leads to thermodynamic decoupling of electron and ion gases, and thus to their different temperatures. Under such conditions the dominating hotter component pushes the colder component further out and thus generates a global electric field which constrains electrons and ions by their mutually generated electric field, yet allows them to reach very high kinetic energies