We explore the role that red giants might play in the central regions ofActive Galactic Nuclei. Due to their large radii and the low binding energy ofthe stellar envelope, giants are vulnerable to envelope stripping fromcollisions with the accretion disk. Using hydrodynamic simulations we show thatsuch collisions will typically deposit a substantial fraction of the envelopemass into the disk on each passage. Repeated encounters will then lead to thecomplete destruction of the star save for the dense core. We estimate the rateof fuel supply by this mechanism using simple models for the AGN disk andcentral stellar cluster. If the central stellar density is of order 10^7 solarmasses per cubic pc, then stripping of giants could account for the activity oftypical AGN provided that the accretion disk extends beyond 0.1 pc. For AGNwith smaller disks, or clusters of lower central density, giant stripping couldbe an important source of gas enriched via stellar nucleosynthesis.
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