Understanding tidal dissipation in gaseous giant planets from their core to their surface

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different internal layers of gaseous giant planets contribute to tidal dissipation, emphasizing the importance of considering both core and fluid envelope effects for understanding planetary evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the separate contributions of the core and fluid envelope to tidal dissipation, highlighting their combined importance.

Findings

Both core and fluid envelope significantly contribute to tidal dissipation.

The contributions depend on core size and mass.

Considering both mechanisms is essential for accurate modeling.

Abstract

Tidal dissipation in planetary interiors is one of the key physical mechanisms that drive the evolution of star-planet and planet-moon systems. Tidal dissipation in planets is intrinsically related to their internal structure. In particular, fluid and solid layers behave differently under tidal forcing. Therefore, their respective dissipation reservoirs have to be compared. In this work, we compute separately the contributions of the potential dense rocky/icy core and of the convective fluid envelope of gaseous giant planets, as a function of core size and mass. We demonstrate that in general both mechanisms must be taken into account.