  Tidal disruption events (TDEs) of stars operated by massive black holes
(MBHs) will be detected in thousands by upcoming facilities such as the Vera
Rubin Observatory. In this work, we assess the rates of standard total TDEs,
destroying the entire star, and partial TDEs, in which a stellar remnant
survives the interaction, by solving 1-D Fokker-Planck equations. Our rate
estimates are based on a novel definition of the loss cone whose size is
commensurate to the largest radius at which partial disruptions can occur, as
motivated by relativistic hydrodynamical simulations. Our novel approach
unveils two important results. First, partial TDEs can be more abundant than
total disruptions by a factor of a few to a few tens. Second, the rates of
complete stellar disruptions can be overestimated by a factor of a few to a few
tens if one neglects partial TDEs, as we find that many of the events
classified at total disruptions in the standard framework are in fact partial
TDEs. Accounting for partial TDEs is particularly relevant for galaxies
harbouring a nuclear stellar cluster featuring many events coming from the
empty loss cone. Based on these findings, we stress that partial disruptions
should be considered when constraining the luminosity function of TDE flares;
accounting for this may reconcile the theoretically estimated TDE rates with
the observed ones.
