A new way to detect massive black holes in galaxies: The stellar remnants of tidal disruption

We point out that the tidal disruption of a giant may leave a luminous (10(35)-10(39) ergs s(-1)), hot (10-100 eV) stellar core. The "supersoft" source detected by Chandra at the center of M31 may be such a core; whether or not it is, the observations have shown that such a core is detectable, even in the center of a galaxy. We therefore explore the range of expected observational signatures and how they may be used to (1) test the hypothesis that the M31 source is a remnant of tidal stripping and (2) discover evidence of black holes and disruption events in other galaxies.