Analytical and numerical studies of central galactic outflows powered by tidal disruption events -- a model for the Fermi bubbles?

Abstract

Capture and tidal disruption of stars by the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center (GC) should occur regularly. The energy released and dissipated by this processes will affect both the ambient environment of the GC and the Galactic halo. A single star of super-Eddington eruption generates a subsonic out ow with an energy release of more than $10^{52}$ erg, which still is not high enough to push shock heated gas into the halo. Only routine tidal disruption of stars near the GC can provide enough cumulative energy to form and maintain large scale structures like the Fermi Bubbles. The average rate of disruption events is expected to be $10^{-4}$ ~ $10^{-5}$ yr$^{-1}$, providing the average power of energy release from the GC into the halo of dW/dt ~ 3*10$^{41}$ erg/s, which is needed to support the Fermi Bubbles. The GC black hole is surrounded by molecular clouds in the disk, but their overall mass and filling factor is too low to stall the shocks from tidal disruption events significantly. The de facto continuous energy injection on timescales of Myr will lead to the propagation of strong shocks in a density stratified Galactic halo and thus create elongated bubble-like features, which are symmetric to the Galactic midplane.