Extended Data Fig. 7: Time evolution of gas eccentricity.
From: Stream–disk shocks as the origins of peak light in tidal disruption events
The mass-weighted eccentricity e (color-coded via the legend on the right) of the bound gas as a function of distance from the SMBH. The vertical dashed line shows the original tidal radius, and the left side of the plot terminates at the softening radius. At all radii, e generally decreases with time, reaching low, quasi-circular values ≲ 0.3 inside a radius of 100 − 200R⊙ by the end of the simulation.
