Mass-loss evolution during repeated collisions

Determine the magnitude of progressive mass-loss enhancement from repeated orbiter-disk collisions and its effect on the maximum lifetime of quasi-periodic eruptions.

Background

The inferred ejected mass of roughly 10−3 M⊙10^{-3}\,M_\odot per burst limits the duration of QPE activity for a stellar-mass orbiter to at most a few decades. If the star loses progressively more mass in successive collisions, the available number of eruptions and hence the lifetime would be reduced further.

The paper explicitly notes that the size of this cumulative mass-loss effect is unresolved and requires hydrodynamical simulations of the collision process.

References

The bound would further decrease if the star progressively loses more mass with each collision \citep[e.g.][]{Yao25}, though the magnitude of this effect is uncertain and would require hydrodynamical simulations to estimate.

— Relativistic outflows power a quasi-periodic eruption: constraints on energetics, mass loss, and emission mechanisms  (2608.28507 - Chakraborty et al., 28 Aug 2026) in Section 3.1, “Constraints on energetics, long-term evolution, and QPE models”

Capturing these processes would require replacing the solid boundary with a resolved gaseous envelope, which we defer to future work; how the stripping and fallback proceed in a thick disk, where the ram-pressure profile encountered by the star differs qualitatively from the thin-disk case, has yet to be explored.

— Unlocking the QPE Mystery: Star-Disk Collisions in Realistic AGN Disks  (2609.03011 - Zhu et al., 2 Sep 2026) in Section 5, “Limitation and conclusion”