An efficient tidal dissipation mechanism via stellar magnetic fields

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Duguid, Craig D., de Vries, Nils B., Lecoanet, Daniel, Barker, Adrian J.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Duguid, Craig D.
de Vries, Nils B.
Lecoanet, Daniel
Barker, Adrian J.
author_facet Duguid, Craig D.
de Vries, Nils B.
Lecoanet, Daniel
Barker, Adrian J.
contents Recent work suggests that inwardly propagating internal gravity waves (IGWs) within a star can be fully converted to outward magnetic waves (MWs) if they encounter a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The resulting magnetic waves dissipate as they propagate outward to regions with lower Alfvén velocity. While tidal forcing is known to excite IGWs, this conversion and subsequent damping of magnetic waves has not been explored as a tidal dissipation mechanism. In particular, stars with sufficiently strong magnetic fields could fully dissipate tidally excited waves, yielding the same tidal evolution as the previously-studied ``travelling wave regime''. Here, we evaluate the viability of this mechanism using stellar models of stars with convective cores (F-type stars in the mass range of $1.2$-$1.6M_\odot$) which were previously thought to be weakly tidally dissipative (due to the absence of nonlinear gravity wave breaking). The criterion for wave conversion to operate is evaluated for each stellar mass using the properties of each star's interior along with estimates of the magnetic field produced by a convective core dynamo under the assumption of equipartition between kinetic (convective) and magnetic energies. Our main result is that this previously unexplored source of efficient tidal dissipation can operate in stars within this mass range for significant fractions of their lifetimes. This tidal dissipation mechanism appears to be consistent with the observed inspiral of WASP-12b, and more generally could play an important role in the orbital evolution of hot Jupiters -- and to lower mass ultra-short period planets -- orbiting F-type stars.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_07085
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An efficient tidal dissipation mechanism via stellar magnetic fields
Duguid, Craig D.
de Vries, Nils B.
Lecoanet, Daniel
Barker, Adrian J.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Recent work suggests that inwardly propagating internal gravity waves (IGWs) within a star can be fully converted to outward magnetic waves (MWs) if they encounter a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The resulting magnetic waves dissipate as they propagate outward to regions with lower Alfvén velocity. While tidal forcing is known to excite IGWs, this conversion and subsequent damping of magnetic waves has not been explored as a tidal dissipation mechanism. In particular, stars with sufficiently strong magnetic fields could fully dissipate tidally excited waves, yielding the same tidal evolution as the previously-studied ``travelling wave regime''. Here, we evaluate the viability of this mechanism using stellar models of stars with convective cores (F-type stars in the mass range of $1.2$-$1.6M_\odot$) which were previously thought to be weakly tidally dissipative (due to the absence of nonlinear gravity wave breaking). The criterion for wave conversion to operate is evaluated for each stellar mass using the properties of each star's interior along with estimates of the magnetic field produced by a convective core dynamo under the assumption of equipartition between kinetic (convective) and magnetic energies. Our main result is that this previously unexplored source of efficient tidal dissipation can operate in stars within this mass range for significant fractions of their lifetimes. This tidal dissipation mechanism appears to be consistent with the observed inspiral of WASP-12b, and more generally could play an important role in the orbital evolution of hot Jupiters -- and to lower mass ultra-short period planets -- orbiting F-type stars.
title An efficient tidal dissipation mechanism via stellar magnetic fields
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07085