Abstract
Recent efforts to understand exotic phenomena in galactic nuclei commonly postulate the presence of a massive black hole accreting gas produced by tidal or collisional disruption of stars. For black holes in the mass range 104–107 M⊙, individual stars penetrating well inside the Roche radius will undergo compression to a short-lived pancake configuration very similar to that produced by a high velocity symmetric collision of the kind likely to occur in the neighbourhood of black holes in the higher mass range ≳109 M⊙. Thermonuclear energy release ensuing in the more extreme events may be sufficient to modify substantially the working of the entire accretion process.
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Carter, B., Luminet, J. Pancake detonation of stars by black holes in galactic nuclei. Nature 296, 211–214 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/296211a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/296211a0
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