Empirical Tidal Dissipation in Exoplanet Hosts from Tidal Spin-up

Kaloyan Penev, L. G. Bouma, Joshua N. Winn, Joel D. Hartman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

Stars with hot Jupiters (HJs) tend to rotate faster than other stars of the same age and mass. This trend has been attributed to tidal interactions between the star and planet. A constraint on the dissipation parameter Q follows from the assumption that tides have managed to spin up the star to the observed rate within the age of the system. This technique was applied previously to HATS-18 and WASP-19. Here, we analyze the sample of all 188 known HJs with an orbital period <3.5 days and a cool host star (Teff < 6100 K). We find evidence that the tidal dissipation parameter (Q ) increases sharply with forcing frequency, from 105 at 0.5 day-1 to 107 at 2 day-1. This helps to resolve a number of apparent discrepancies between studies of tidal dissipation in binary stars, HJs, and warm Jupiters. It may also allow for a HJ to damp the obliquity of its host star prior to being destroyed by tidal decay.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number165
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume155
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • planet-star interactions
  • planetary systems
  • stars: rotation

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