Tidal scattering of stars on supermassive black holes in galactic centers

Some of the mass that feeds the growth of a massive black hole (BH) in a ga lactic center is supplied by tidal disruption of stars that approach it on unbound, low angular momentum orbits. For each star that is disrupted, othe rs narrowly escape after being subjected to extreme tidal distortion, spin- up, mixing, and mass loss, which may affect their evolution and appearance. We show that it is likely that a significant fraction of the stars around massive BHs in galactic centers have undergone such extreme tidal interacti ons and survived subsequent total disruption, either by being deflected off their orbit or by missing the BH due to its Brownian motion. We discuss po ssible long-term observable consequences of this process, which may be rele vant for understanding the nature of stars in galactic centers and may prov ide a signature of the existence of massive BHs there.