Extended Data Fig. 8: Features of the emission surfaces.
From: Stream–disk shocks as the origins of peak light in tidal disruption events
Panel (a): angle-averaged thermalization (Rth; blue, red curves) and photospheric (Rph; black, pink curves) radii plotted as functions of time. The photosphere is always larger than Rth, demonstrating the dominance of scattering opacity. This is shown with an arithmetic mean (blue, black curves) and a geometric mean (red, pink curves). The stronger time evolution in the geometric means highlights the higher initial asymmetry in the actual thermalization surface/photosphere, but the convergence of the two means shows that this asymmetry declines over time. Panel (b): the dimensionless gas radial velocity, ∣Vr∣/Vesc, at the thermalization radius, plotted as a function of time. As in Extended Data Fig. 8, we show both arithmetic (blue, black) and geometric (red, pink) angle averages. We break up the thermalization surface into inflowing (black, pink) and outflowing (blue, red) components. The ratio Vr/Vesc < 1 always, implying that the gas on the thermalization surface is, on average, bound to the SMBH.
