Thermal Tides: An Explanation for the Inflated Radii of the Hot Jupters

Details Thermal Tides: An Explanation for the Inflated Radii of the Hot Jupters Thermal Tides: An Explanation for the Inflated Radii of the Hot Jupters

Sep 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011ess.....2.1007s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, ESS meeting #2, #10.07

Physics

Scientific paper

As a newly discovered class of astrophysical objects, the hot Jupiters have provided some clearly-posed, but difficult to explain, physical problems. For example, the inferred radii of transiting hot Jupiters are far too large to be explained by internal heating due to passive gravitational contraction. I'll describe how a subtle tidal mechanism resulting from asymmetric day-night heating, known as "thermal tides," leads to asynchronous spin in the steady state. The ongoing dissipation of the gravitational tide provides the necessary internal dissipation to inflate hot Jupiters for the lifetime of the system. I will describe the basic physics of thermal tides in gas giant fluid planets and explain how this mechanism may be important in understanding the observed properties of the hot Jupiters. In particular, I will show that the observed inflated radii of the hot Jupiters can be understood in terms of a "thermal tidal main sequence."

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