Other
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21840608m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #406.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Other
Scientific paper
Due to the Darwin instability, hot Jupiters are expected to spiral in and merge with their host stars. The time scale for this spiral-in can be readily calculated for transiting hot Jupiters, but it is subject to uncertainty in the tidal dissipation parameter Q. Using data available for a sample of over one hundred transiting planets, we calculate the time it takes for hot Jupiters to spiral in from their current distance to their host stars. It is found that the spiral in times are strongly correlated with the excess of the planet's radius relative to its equilibrium radius in the sense that larger radius anomalies correspond to shorter spiral in times. An energy source has to be invoked to keep planets inflated longer than their natural cooling time. Irradiation by the host star has been considered but a plausible mechanism to transport the irradiating flux to the planet interior where it is needed for significant inflation has not yet been identified. A 1 Jupiter mass planet needs an thermal energy excess of the order of its gravitational binding energy in order to inflate it by as much as 50 percent. This rules out a source like dissipation of tides in the planet due to nonsynchronous rotation, since the maximum rotational energy of a planet is only a fraction of its binding energy. We propose that the cause of inflation is that the hot Jupiters are young, typically a few hundred Myr. The reason for this youth is hot Jupiter formation in the merger of a binary. The likely binary populations include W UMa stars (contact binaries) and low mass detached binaries. This scenario also explains other puzzling properties of hot Jupiters, such as their high abundance in orbits close to the host stars and enhanced lithium depletion.
Martin Eduardo L.
Spruit Hendrik
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