Tidal dissipation compared to seismic dissipation: in small bodies, in earths, and in superearths

TL;DR

This paper compares tidal and seismic dissipation in celestial bodies, showing that self-gravitation significantly reduces tidal damping in larger bodies like superearths, especially at low frequencies, affecting their orbital evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified homogeneous sphere model to quantify how self-gravitation affects tidal phase lag and damping, highlighting differences from seismic dissipation especially in large bodies.

Findings

Tidal lag is reduced by self-gravitation in larger bodies.

Tidal damping is weaker in superearths than seismic estimates suggest.

Tidal torques pass through zero at synchronous orbit, influenced by body size.

Abstract

While the seismic quality factor and phase lag are defined solely by the bulk properties of the mantle, their tidal counterparts are determined both by the bulk properties and self-gravitation of a body as a whole. For a qualitative estimate, we model the body with a homogeneous sphere and express the tidal phase lag through the lag in a sample of material. Although simplistic, our model is sufficient to understand that the lags are not identical. The difference emerges because self-gravitation pulls the tidal bulge down. At low frequencies, this reduces strain and makes tidal damping less efficient in larger bodies. At high frequencies, competition between self-gravitation and rheology becomes more complex, though for sufficiently large superearths the same rule works: the larger the body, the weaker tidal damping in it. Being negligible for small terrestrial planets and moons, the difference between the seismic and tidal lagging (and likewise between the seismic and tidal damping) becomes very considerable for superearths. In those, it is much lower than what one might expect from using a seismic quality factor. The tidal damping rate deviates from the seismic damping rate especially in the zero-frequency limit, and this difference takes place for bodies of any size. So the equal in magnitude but opposite in sign tidal torques, exerted on one another by the primary and the secondary, go smoothly through zero as the secondary crosses the synchronous orbit. We describe the mantle rheology with the Andrade model, allowing it to lean towards the Maxwell model at the lowest frequencies. To implement this additional flexibility, we reformulate the Andrade model by endowing it with a free parameter which is the ratio of the anelastic timescale to the viscoelastic Maxwell time of the mantle. Some uncertainty in this parameter's frequency-dependence does not influence our principal conclusions.