Tidal disruption of stellar binaries as a pathway to exotic transients
Tidal disruption event (TDE) progenitors are commonly modelled as single stars on parabolic orbits around a supermassive black hole (SMBH), yet observations reveal a richer diversity of dynamical pathways. We show that tidal separation of stellar binaries by a $10^6\,M_\odot$ SMBH provides a natural mechanism for producing eccentric TDEs. Using restricted three-body and SPH simulations, we model a solar-like star (SLS)--white dwarf (WD) binary on a parabolic orbit. The binary orbital phase governs the outcome: one component is captured onto a tightly bound orbit while the other is ejected as a hypervelocity object, naturally producing TDEs with eccentricities $e \neq 1$. We classify these into Elliptical TDEs (eTDEs) and Hyperbolic TDEs (hTDEs), occurring with equal probability. For $\sim 88\%$ of orientations the disruption is clean, with no mass accreted by the WD. The remaining $\sim 12\%$, in two narrow phase windows, leaves the WD with a captured debris envelope (WDDE). About a third of that, $\sim 4\%$ of orientations, involves a direct WD--SLS collision near pericenter, with fallback peaking up to five times earlier and twenty times higher than for a single star; for the innermost $\sim 1.5\%$ the total WDDE mass exceeds $1.4\,M_\odot$, though the degenerate core does not, since the captured material forms a non-degenerate envelope, suggesting outcomes ranging from nova-like events to peculiar red giant-like objects. Depending on the phase, the mechanism may also produce repeating partial TDEs (rTDEs) and quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). Binary--SMBH encounters provide a robust channel for generating diverse TDEs with distinct observational signatures.