Tidal stellar disruptions have traditionally been discussed as a probe of the single , massive black holes ( MBHs ) that are dormant in the nuclei of galaxies .
In Chen et al .
( 2009 ) , we used numerical scattering experiments to show that three-body interactions between bound stars in a stellar cusp and a non-evolving “ hard ” MBH binary will also produce a burst of tidal disruptions , caused by a combination of the secular “ Kozai effect ” and by close resonant encounters with the secondary hole .
Here we derive basic analytical scalings of the stellar disruption rates with the system parameters , assess the relative importance of the Kozai and resonant encounter mechanisms as a function of time , discuss the impact of general relativistic ( GR ) and extended stellar cusp effects , and develop a hybrid model to self-consistently follow the shrinking of an MBH binary in a stellar background , including slingshot ejections and tidal disruptions .
In the case of a fiducial binary with primary hole mass M _ { 1 } = 10 ^ { 7 } { M _ { \odot } } and mass ratio q = M _ { 2 } / M _ { 1 } = 1 / 81 , embedded in an isothermal cusp , we derive a stellar disruption rate \dot { N } _ { * } \sim 0.2 yr ^ { -1 } lasting \sim 3 \times 10 ^ { 5 } yr .
This rate is 3 orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding value for a single MBH fed by two-body relaxation , confirming our previous findings .
For q \ll 0.01 , the Kozai/chaotic effect could be quenched due to GR/cusp effects by an order of magnitude , but even in this case the stellar-disruption rate is still two orders of magnitude larger than that given by standard relaxation processes around a single MBH .
Our results suggest that \gtrsim 10 \% of the tidal-disruption events may originate in MBH binaries .