Tidal effects away from the equatorial plane in Kerr backgrounds

Abstract

Tidal effects on self-gravitating Newtonian stars rotating around a Kerr black hole in stable spherical orbits away from the equatorial plane are exemplified by a non-vanishing Carter's constant, and are substantially different from those on the equatorial plane. In this paper, we calculate the tidal disruption limit of the star numerically, in Fermi normal coordinates on such non-equatorial orbits, and find significant differences in the nature of tidal forces compared to equatorial orbits.