No Arabic abstract
Tidal torques play a key role in rotational dynamics of celestial bodies. They govern these bodies tidal despinning, and also participate in the subtle process of entrapment of these bodies into spin-orbit resonances. This makes tidal torques directly relevant to the studies of habitability of planets and their moons. Our work begins with an explanation of how friction and lagging should be built into the theory of bodily tides. Although much of this material can be found in various publications, a short but self-consistent summary on the topic has been lacking in the hitherto literature, and we are filling the gap. After these preparations, we address a popular concise formula for the tidal torque, which is often used in the literature, for planets or stars.We explain why the derivation of this expression, offered in the paper by Goldreich (1966; AJ 71, 1 - 7) and in the books by Kaula (1968, eqn. 4.5.29), and Murray & Dermott (1999, eqn. 4.159), implicitly sets the time lag to be frequency independent. Accordingly, the ensuing expression for the torque can be applied only to bodies having a very special (and very hypothetical) rheology which makes the time lag frequency independent, i.e, the same for all Fourier modes in the spectrum of tide. This expression for the torque should not be used for bodies of other rheologies. Specifically, the expression cannot be combined with an extra assertion of the geometric lag (or the phase lag) being constant, because at finite eccentricities the said assumption is incompatible with the constant-time-lag condition.
Plate tectonics is a geophysical process currently unique to Earth, has an important role in regulating the Earths climate, and may be better understood by identifying rocky planets outside our solar system with tectonic activity. The key criterion for whether or not plate tectonics may occur on a terrestrial planet is if the stress on a planets lithosphere from mantle convection may overcome the lithospheres yield stress. Although many rocky exoplanets closely orbiting their host stars have been detected, all studies to date of plate tectonics on exoplanets have neglected tidal stresses in the planets lithosphere. Modeling a rocky exoplanet as a constant density, homogeneous, incompressible sphere, we show the tidal stress from the host star acting on close-in planets may become comparable to the stress on the lithosphere from mantle convection. We also show that tidal stresses from planet-planet interactions are unlikely to be significant for plate tectonics, but may be strong enough to trigger Earthquakes. Our work may imply planets orbiting close to their host stars are more likely to experience plate tectonics, with implications for exoplanetary geophysics and habitability. We produce a list of detected rocky exoplanets under the most intense stresses. Atmospheric and topographic observations may confirm our predictions in the near future. Investigations of planets with significant tidal stress can not only lead to observable parameters linked to the presence of active plate tectonics, but may also be used as a tool to test theories on the main driving force behind tectonic activity.
We present a self-consistent model for the tidal evolution of circumbinary planets. Based on the weak-friction model, we derive expressions of the resulting forces and torques considering complete tidal interactions between all the bodies of the system. Although the tidal deformation suffered by each extended mass must take into account the combined gravitational effects of the other two bodies, the only tidal forces that have a net effect on the dynamic are those that are applied on the same body that exerts the deformation, as long as no mean-motion resonance exists between the masses. We apply the model to the Kepler-38 binary system. The evolution of the spin equations shows that the planet reaches a stationary solution much faster than the stars, and the equilibrium spin frequency is sub-synchronous. The binary components evolve on a longer timescale, reaching a super-synchronous solution very close to that derived for the 2-body problem. After reaching spin stationarity, the eccentricity is damped in all bodies and for all the parameters analyzed here. A similar effect is noted for the binary separation. The semimajor axis of the planet, on the other hand, may migrate inwards or outwards, depending on the masses and orbital parameters. In some cases the secular evolution of the system may also exhibit an alignment of the pericenters, requiring to include additional terms in the tidal model. Finally, we derived analytical expressions for the variational equations of the orbital evolution and spin rates based on low-order elliptical expansions in the semimajor axis ratio and the eccentricities. These are found to reduce to the 2-body case when one of the masses is taken equal to zero. This model allow us to find a close and simple analytical expression for the stationary spin rates of all the bodies, as well as predicting the direction and magnitude of the orbital migration.
Traditionally stellar radiation has been the only heat source considered capable of determining global climate on long timescales. Here we show that terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars may be tidally heated at high enough levels to induce a runaway greenhouse for a long enough duration for all the hydrogen to escape. Without hydrogen, the planet no longer has water and cannot support life. We call these planets Tidal Venuses, and the phenomenon a tidal greenhouse. Tidal effects also circularize the orbit, which decreases tidal heating. Hence, some planets may form with large eccentricity, with its accompanying large tidal heating, and lose their water, but eventually settle into nearly circular orbits (i.e. with negligible tidal heating) in the habitable zone (HZ). However, these planets are not habitable as past tidal heating desiccated them, and hence should not be ranked highly for detailed follow-up observations aimed at detecting biosignatures. Planets orbiting stars with masses <0.3 solar masses may be in danger of desiccation via tidal heating. We apply these concepts to Gl 667C c, a ~4.5 Earth-mass planet orbiting a 0.3 solar mass star at 0.12 AU. We find that it probably did not lose its water via tidal heating as orbital stability is unlikely for the high eccentricities required for the tidal greenhouse. As the inner edge of the HZ is defined by the onset of a runaway or moist greenhouse powered by radiation, our results represent a fundamental revision to the HZ for non-circular orbits. In the appendices we review a) the moist and runaway greenhouses, b) hydrogen escape, c) stellar mass-radius and mass-luminosity relations, d) terrestrial planet mass-radius relations, and e) linear tidal theories. [abridged]
Since the work of Hartle in the 1970s, and the subsequent development of the the Membrane Paradigm approach to black hole physics it has been widely accepted that superradiant scattering of gravitational waves bears strong similarities with the phenomenon of ``tidal friction (well-known from Newtonian gravity) operating in binary systems of viscous material bodies. In this paper we revisit the superradiance-tidal friction analogy within the context of ultracompact relativistic bodies. We advocate that as long as these bodies have non-zero viscosity they should undergo tidal friction that can be construed as a kind of superradiant scattering from the point of view of the dynamics of an orbiting test-body. In addition we consider the presence of anisotropic matter, which is required for at least some ultracompact bodies, if they are to sustain a radius very close to the gravitational radius. We find that the tidal friction/superradiance output is enhanced with increasing anisotropy and that strongly anisotropic systems exhibit an unconventional response to tidal and centrifugal forces. Finally, we make contact with the artificial system comprising a black hole with its horizon replaced by a mirror (sometimes used as a proxy for ultracompact material bodies) and discuss superradiance and tidal friction in relation to it.
The advanced rheological models of Andrade (1910) and Sundberg & Cooper (2010) are compared to the traditional Maxwell model to understand how each affects the tidal dissipation of heat within rocky bodies. We find both the Andrade and Sundberg-Cooper rheologies can produce at least 10$times$ the tidal heating compared to a traditional Maxwell model for a warm (1400-1600 K) Io-like satellite. Sundberg-Cooper can cause even larger dissipation around a critical temperature and frequency. These models allow cooler planets to stay tidally active in the face of orbital perturbations-a condition we term tidal resilience. This has implications for the time evolution of tidally active worlds, and the long-term equilibria they fall into. For instance, if Ios interior is better modeled by the Andrade or Sundberg-Cooper rheologies, the number of possible resonance-forming scenarios that still produce a hot, modern Io is expanded, and these scenarios do not require an early formation of the Laplace resonance. The two primary empirical parameters that define the Andrade anelasticity are examined in several phase spaces to provide guidance on how their uncertainties impact tidal outcomes, as laboratory studies continue to constrain their real values. We provide detailed reference tables on the fully general equations required for others to insert the Andrade and Sundberg-Cooper models into standard tidal formulae. Lastly, we show that advanced rheologies greatly impact the heating of short-period exoplanets and exomoons, while the properties of tidal resilience can mean a greater number of tidally active worlds among all extrasolar systems.