Interaction of Close-in Planets with the Magnetosphere of their Host Stars I: Diffusion, Ohmic Dissipation of Time Dependent Field, Planetary Inflation, and Mass Loss

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic interactions between young stars and close-in planets can cause planetary inflation, mass loss, and halt orbital migration through ohmic dissipation and magnetic coupling effects.

Contribution

It introduces a model for magnetic coupling and ohmic dissipation in young star-planet systems, explaining planetary inflation and migration halting mechanisms.

Findings

Stellar magnetic fields can penetrate planetary interiors during synodic periods.

Energy dissipation inside planets can cause planetary inflation.

Planetary inflation can lead to mass loss and halt orbital migration.

Abstract

The unanticipated discovery of the first close-in planet around 51 Peg has rekindled the notion that shortly after their formation outside the snow line, some planets may have migrated to the proximity of their host stars because of their tidal interaction with their nascent disks. If these planets indeed migrated to their present-day location, their survival would require a halting mechanism in the proximity of their host stars. Most T Tauri stars have strong magnetic fields which can clear out a cavity in the innermost regions of their circumstellar disks and impose magnetic induction on the nearby young planets. Here we consider the possibility that a magnetic coupling between young stars and planets could quench the planet's orbital evolution. After a brief discussion of the complexity of the full problem, we focus our discussion on evaluating the permeation and ohmic dissipation of the time dependent component of the stellar magnetic field in the planet's interior. Adopting a model first introduced by C. G. Campbell for interacting binary stars, we determine the modulation of the planetary response to the tilted magnetic field of a non-synchronously spinning star. We first compute the conductivity in the young planets, which indicates that the stellar field can penetrate well into the planet's envelope in a synodic period. For various orbital configurations, we show that the energy dissipation rate inside the planet is sufficient to induce short-period planets to inflate. This process results in mass loss via Roche lobe overflow and in the halting of the planet's orbital migration.