# astro: a "zombie" star as a homing beacon to detect classes of black holes

<< The research explored whether a dormant white dwarf star-sometimes referred to as a "zombie" star-could reignite if it had a close encounter with an intermediate-mass black hole. >>

<< If the stars align, so to speak, a zombie star could serve as a homing beacon for a never-before-detected class of black holes. >>

<< The stretching phenomena can be very complicated (..) Imagine a spherical star approaching a black hole. As it approaches the black hole, tidal forces begin to compress the star in a direction perpendicular to the orbital plane, reigniting it. But within the orbital plane, these gravitational forces stretch the star and tear it apart. It's a competing effect. >> Rob Hoffman

<< It was exciting to see that the zombie star reignited in each of the close encounter scenarios we looked at, >> Peter Anninos

Nolan O'brien. 'Zombie' stars return from the dead. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Oct 31, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-10-zombie-stars-dead.html

Peter Anninos, P. Chris Fragile, et al. Relativistic Tidal Disruption and Nuclear Ignition of White Dwarf Stars by Intermediate-mass Black Holes. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 865, Number 1. Sep 17, 2018. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aadad9/meta