Related papers: Planetary Rhythms: Synchronous Circulation on Vari…
Star-planet tidal interactions play a significant role in the dynamical evolution of close-in planetary systems. We investigate the propagation and dissipation of tidal inertial waves in a stellar/planetary convective region. We take into…
Recent observations suggest that stellar magnetic activity may be influenced by the presence of a close-by giant planet. Specifically, chromospheric hot spots rotating in phase with the planet orbital motion have been observed during some…
Infrared lightcurves of transiting hot Jupiters present a trend in which the atmospheres of the hottest planets are less efficient at redistributing the stellar energy absorbed on their daysides---and thus have a larger day-night…
The origin of the spins of giant planets is an open question in astrophysics. As planets and stars accrete from discs, if the specific angular momentum accreted corresponds to that of a Keplerian orbit at the surface of the object, it is…
The radial velocity method for detecting extra-solar planets relies on measuring the star's wobble around the system's center of mass. Since this is an indirect method, we may ask if there are other dynamical effects that can mimic such…
Tidal dissipation in star-planet systems can occur through various mechanisms, among which is the elliptical instability. This acts on elliptically deformed equilibrium tidal flows in rotating fluid planets and stars, and excites inertial…
In some planetary systems, the orbital periods of two of its members present a commensurability, usually known by mean-motion resonance. These resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the planets. As a consequence,…
Tidal interactions between planets or stars and the bodies that orbit them dissipate energy in their interiors. The energy dissipated drives internal heating and a fraction of that energy will be released as seismic energy. Here we…
The obliquities of planet-hosting stars are clues about the formation of planetary systems. Previous observations led to the hypothesis that for close-in giant planets, spin-orbit alignment is enforced by tidal interactions. Here, we…
The dominant mechanism for generating free-floating planets has so far remained elusive. One suggested mechanism is that planets are ejected from planetary systems due to planet-planet interactions. However, instability around a single star…
After finding more planets than expected at the shortest period, there has been an effort to explain their numbers by weak tidal friction. However, we find that the strength of tidal dissipation that would produce the occurence distribution…
The internal thermal and magnetic evolution of rocky exoplanets is critical to their habitability. We focus on the thermal-orbital evolution of Earth-mass planets around low mass M stars whose radiative habitable zone overlaps with the…
Tidal effects arise from differential and inelastic deformation of a planet by a perturbing body. The continuous action of tides modify the rotation of the planet together with its orbit until an equilibrium situation is reached. It is…
Many exo-solar systems discovered in the last decade consist of planets orbiting in resonant configurations and consequently, their evolution should show long-term stability. However, due to the mutual planetary interactions a multi-planet…
Exoplanets with short orbit period reside very close to their host stars. They transition very rapidly between different sectors of the circumstellar space environment along their orbit, leading to large variations of the magnetic field in…
We perform direct numerical simulations of the tidal encounter of a rotating planet on a highly eccentric or parabolic orbit about a central star formulated as an initial value problem. This approach enables us to extend previous work of…
The negligible eccentricity of all extra solar planets with periods less than six days can be accounted for by dissipation of tidal disturbances within their envelopes which are induced by their host stars. In the period range of 7-21 days,…
We study the spin evolution of close-in planets in compact multi-planetary systems. The rotation period of these planets is often assumed to be synchronous with the orbital period due to tidal dissipation. Here we show that planet-planet…
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al. 2006) and…
To first approximation, a binary system conserves its angular momentum while it evolves to its state of minimum kinetic energy: circular orbit, all spins aligned, and components rotating in synchronism with the orbital motion. The pace at…