Self-consistent Dynamical and Chaotic Tides in the REBOUNDx framework

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new implementation of dynamical and chaotic tides within the REBOUNDx framework, enabling fast, accurate N-body simulations of high-eccentricity astrophysical systems with vibrational mode coupling.

Contribution

The authors implement coupled dynamical tide evolution in REBOUNDx, expanding its capabilities for high-eccentricity orbital studies and validating it against prior secular regime results.

Findings

Implementation agrees with previous studies in secular regime

Enables efficient simulations of high-eccentricity systems

Applicable to diverse astrophysical scenarios involving dynamical tides

Abstract

At high eccentricities, tidal forcing excites vibrational modes within orbiting bodies known as dynamical tides. In this paper, we implement the coupled evolution of these modes with the body's orbit in the \texttt{REBOUNDx} framework, an extension to the popular $N$-body integrator \texttt{REBOUND}. We provide a variety of test cases relevant to exoplanet dynamics and demonstrate overall agreement with prior studies of dynamical tides in the secular regime. Our implementation is readily applied to various high-eccentricity scenarios and allows for fast and accurate $N$-body investigations of astrophysical systems for which dynamical tides are relevant.