Peter Jonker

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are currently discovered in ever increasing numbers by optical transient surveys. Similarly, the eROSITA and planned Einstein Probe X-ray satellites are expected to discover many TDEs in X-rays. TDEs are one of the most direct and promising routes to study otherwise quiescent supermassive black holes (SMBHs), but also stellar-mass BHs through GW radiation emitted when they rip apart a neutron star.  I will introduce TDEs and show how we expect to learn about the black home mass and spin and how this will help us understand the formation and evolution of SMBHs. Among the questions we would like to answer using TDE studies are: Do intermediate-mass black holes exist?; What is the spin distribution of supermassive black holes?; Are TDEs behind the enigmatic class of Fast X-ray Transients?