Tidal Disruption Events in the Gas-Rich Early Universe: A New Window into Black Hole Growth with Roman
| Program ID | 19112 |
|---|---|
| Science Category | Active Galaxies & Supermassive Black Holes |
| Program Type | Analysis |
| Category | Small |
| Principal Investigator | Fulya Kiroglu |
| PI Institution | Northwestern University |
| Co-Investigators |
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| Abstract | Roman's near-infrared sensitivity and wide-area time-domain coverage will detect tidal disruption events (TDEs) at $z\sim 1$--$3$, accessing the obscured, gas-rich galactic nuclei where these disruptions are expected to be most common. Recent JWST observations reinforce the importance of this regime, revealing AGN with extremely red colors and compact morphologies at high redshift that suggest their nuclear black holes are embedded in dense, actively star-forming environments where TDEs should occur frequently. Because TDE rates are sensitive to the low-mass end of the black hole mass function around $M_\mathrm{BH} \sim 10^6\,M_\odot$, these events offer a unique route to probing the black hole populations that JWST is now uncovering and that Roman will survey at scale. However, TDEs in gas-rich environments may evolve very differently from classical disruptions in gas-free systems, and most existing simulations focus on low-redshift, gas-poor conditions. We propose a theoretical program to fill this gap by modeling high-redshift TDEs in both quiescent and gas-rich environments using moving-mesh magnetohydrodynamic simulations with \textsc{AREPO}, realistic \textsc{MESA} stellar profiles, and \textsc{Sedona} radiation transport. Synthetic light curves and spectral energy distributions convolved with Roman/WFI responses will form the first predictive library of high-redshift TDE observables, enabling the community to interpret Roman's nuclear transients and constrain black hole demographics in the early universe. |