Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-02-15
2011, ApJ, 731, 67
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Accepted for publication in ApJ 5 pages 3 figures
Scientific paper
In recent years it has been shown that the tidal coupling between extrasolar planets and their stars could be an important mechanism leading to orbital evolution. Both the tides the planet raises on the star and vice versa are important and dissipation efficiencies ranging over four orders of magnitude are being used. In addition, the discovery of extrasolar planets extremely close to their stars has made it clear that the estimates of the tidal quality factor, Q, of the stars based on Jupiter and its satellite system and on main sequence binary star observations are too low, resulting in lifetimes for the closest planets orders of magnitude smaller than their age. We argue that those estimates of the tidal dissipation efficiency are not applicable for stars with spin periods much longer than the extrasolar planets' orbital period. We address the problem by applying our own values for the dissipation efficiency of tides, based on our numerical simulations of externally perturbed volumes of stellar-like convection. The range of dissipation we find for main-sequence stars corresponds to stellar $Q_*$ of $10^8$ to $3{\times}10^9$. The derived orbit lifetimes are comparable to, or much longer than the ages of the observed extrasolar planetary systems. The predicted orbital decay transit timing variations due to the tidal coupling are below the rate of ms/yr for currently known systems, but within reach of an extended Kepler mission provided such objects are found in its field.
Penev Kaloyan
Sasselov Dimitar
No associations
LandOfFree
Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extrasolar Planets: High Stellar Q from New Theoretical Models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extrasolar Planets: High Stellar Q from New Theoretical Models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extrasolar Planets: High Stellar Q from New Theoretical Models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-416247