Observational signatures of planetary tidal disruption events around solar-mass stars
The tidal disruption of planets by their host stars represents a growing area of interest in transient astronomy, offering insights into the final stages of planetary system evolution and the scattering of planets in gas-poor environments. We aim to model the hydrodynamic evolution and predict the multiwavelength observational signatures of planetary tidal disruption events (TDEs) around a solar-mass host, focusing on Jupiter-like and Neptune-like progenitors and examining how different eccentricities of the planet’s pre-disruption orbit shape the morphology and emission of the tidal debris. We performed 2D hydrodynamic simulations using the code to model the formation and viscous evolution of the resulting debris disk. We employed a viscous α-disk prescription and included a time-dependent energy equation to compute the disk's effective temperature and subsequently derive the bolometric and multiband photometric light curves. FARGO3D Our simulations show that planetary TDEs produce a diverse range of luminous transients. A Jupiter-like planet disrupted from a circular orbit at the Roche limit generates a transient that peaks at L_ ̊m bol ∼ 10^ 38 erg s -1 $ after a ∼12-day rise. In contrast, the same planet on an eccentric orbit (e=0.5) produces a transient of comparable peak luminosity but on a much shorter timescale, peaking in only $∼1 day, which is followed by a highly volatile light curve. We find that the effect of eccentricity is not universal, as it accelerates the event for Jupiter but delays it for Neptune. A robust "bluer-when-brighter" color evolution is a common feature as the disk cools over its multi-year lifetime. The strong dependence of light curve morphology on the initial orbit and progenitor mass makes these events powerful diagnostics. The dichotomous effect of eccentricity indicates that light curves probe both orbital parameters and the planet's internal structure. This framework is crucial for identifying planetary TDEs in time-domain surveys.
Authors
- Mario Sucerquia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8065-4199)
- Vardan G. Elbakyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9433-900X)
- Amelia Bayo
- Matías Montesinos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0363-1492)
- Sergei Nayakshin
- Zhaohuan Zhu
- Zhen Guo
Publication Details
- Journal
- Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology)
- Published
- 2026-02-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202558389/pdf
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00