Influence of stellar structure, evolution and rotation on the tidal damping of exoplanetary spin-orbit angles

TL;DR

This paper develops an advanced model for the tidal evolution of exoplanetary obliquity, accounting for stellar structure, evolution, and rotation, revealing how these factors influence the damping of spin-orbit angles.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analytical model for tidal dissipation that includes all dynamical tide components and stellar evolution effects, improving understanding of obliquity evolution.

Findings

Obliquity is generally damped faster than the semi-major axis.

Final tidal outcomes depend heavily on initial conditions.

More massive, faster-rotating stars produce more efficient tidal dissipation.

Abstract

It is debated whether close-in giant planets can form in-situ and if not, which mechanisms are responsible for their migration. One of the observable tests for migration theories is the current value of the angle between the stellar equatorial plane and the orbital plane, called the obliquity. After the main migration mechanism has ended, the obliquity and the semi-major axis keep on evolving due to the combined effects of tides and magnetic braking. The observed correlation between effective temperature and measured projected obliquity in known short-period systems has been taken as evidence of such mechanisms being at play. Our aim is to produce an improved model for the tidal evolution of the obliquity, including all the components of the dynamical tide for circular misaligned systems. This model takes into account the strong variations in structure and rotation of stars during their evolution, and their consequences for the efficiency of tidal dissipation. We use an analytical formulation for the frequency-averaged dissipation in convective layers for each mode, depending only on global stellar parameters and rotation. For typical hot-Jupiters orbital configurations, the obliquity is generally damped on a much shorter timescale than the semi-major axis. The final outcome of tidal evolution is also very sensitive to the initial conditions, with Jupiter-mass planets being either quickly destroyed or brought on more distant orbit, depending on the initial ratio of planetary orbital momentum to stellar spin momentum. However we find that everything else being the same, the evolution of the obliquity around low-mass stars with a thin convective zone is not slower than around those with a thicker convective zone. On the contrary, we find that more massive stars, remaining faster rotator throughout their main-sequence, produce more efficient dissipation.