Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are among the brightest transients in the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray sky. These flares are set into motion when a star is torn apart by the tidal field of a massive black hole, triggering a chain of events which is – so far – incompletely understood. However, the disruption process has been studied extensively for almost half a century, and unlike the later stages of a TDE, our understanding of the disruption itself is reasonably well converged. In this Chapter, we review both analytical and numerical models for stellar tidal disruption. Starting with relatively simple, order-of-magnitude physics, we review models of increasing sophistication, the semi-analytic “affine formalism,” hydrodynamic simulations of the disruption of polytropic stars, and the most recent hydrodynamic results concerning the disruption of realistic stellar models. Our review surveys the immediate aftermath of disruption in both typical and more unusual TDEs, exploring how the fate of the tidal debris changes if one considers non-main sequence stars, deeply penetrating tidal encounters, binary star systems, and sub-parabolic orbits. The stellar tidal disruption process provides the initial conditions needed to model the formation of accretion flows around quiescent massive black holes, and in some cases may also lead to directly observable emission, for example via shock breakout, gravitational waves or runaway nuclear fusion in deeply plunging TDEs.

潮汐破坏事件（TDE）是光学，紫外线和X射线天空中最明亮的瞬变之一。当一颗恒星被一个巨大的黑洞的潮汐场撕开，引发一系列事件时，这些耀斑便开始运动。到目前为止，这些事件尚不完全清楚。但是，对中断过程进行了近半个世纪的广泛研究，并且与TDE的后期不同，我们对中断本身的理解已得到很好的融合。在本章中，我们回顾了恒星潮汐破坏的解析模型和数值模型。从相对简单的，数量级的物理学开始，我们回顾了日益复杂的模型，半解析“仿射形式论”，多变星破裂的流体动力学模拟，以及有关破坏实际恒星模型的最新流体动力学结果。我们的综述调查了典型TDE和更不寻常TDE破裂的直接后果，探讨了如果考虑非主序恒星，深穿透潮汐相遇，双星系统和次抛物线轨道，潮汐碎片的命运将如何变化。恒星的潮汐破坏过程提供了模拟静态大质量黑洞周围吸积流形成所需的初始条件，并且在某些情况下还可能导致直接可观测到的发射，例如通过激波爆发，引力波或深陷时的失控核聚变TDE。探索如果人们考虑非主序恒星，深度穿透的潮汐相遇，双星系统和次抛物线轨道，那么潮汐碎片的命运将如何变化。恒星的潮汐破坏过程提供了模拟静态大质量黑洞周围吸积流形成所需的初始条件，并且在某些情况下还可能导致直接可观测到的发射，例如通过激波爆发，引力波或深陷时的失控核聚变TDE。探索如果人们考虑非主序恒星，深度穿透的潮汐相遇，双星系统和次抛物线轨道，那么潮汐碎片的命运将如何变化。恒星的潮汐破坏过程提供了模拟静态大质量黑洞周围吸积流形成所需的初始条件，并且在某些情况下还可能导致直接可观测到的发射，例如通过激波爆发，引力波或深陷时的失控核聚变TDE。