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White dwarfs (WDs) can be tidally disrupted only by massive black holes(MBHs) with masses less than $\sim10^5 M_\odot$. These tidal interactions feedmaterial to the MBH well above its Eddington limit, with the potential tolaunch a relativistic jet. The corresponding beamed emission is a promisingsignpost to an otherwise quiescent MBH of relatively low mass. We show that themass transfer history, and thus the lightcurve, are quite different when thedisruptive orbit is parabolic, eccentric, or circular. The mass lost each orbitexponentiates in the eccentric-orbit case leading to the destruction of the WDafter several tens of orbits. We examine the stellar dynamics of clusterssurrounding MBHs to show that single-passage WD disruptions are substantiallymore common than repeating encounters. The $10^{49}$ erg s$^{-1}$ peakluminosity of these events makes them visible to cosmological distances. Theymay be detectible at rates of as many as tens per year by instruments likeSwift. In fact, WD-disruption transients significantly outshine theirmain-sequence star counterparts, and are the most likely tidal interaction tobe detected arising from MBHs with masses less than $10^5 M_\odot$. Thedetection or non-detection of such WD-disruption transients by Swift is,therefore, a powerful tool to constrain lower end of the MBH mass function. Theemerging class of ultra-long gamma ray bursts all have peak luminosities anddurations reminiscent of WD disruptions, offering a hint that WD-disruptiontransients may already be present in existing datasets.

Illuminating Massive Black Holes With White Dwarfs: Orbital Dynamics and High Energy Transients from Tidal Interactions