Internal wave breaking and the fate of planets around solar-type stars
Abstract
Internal gravity waves are excited at the interface of convection and radiation zones of a solar-type star, by the tidal forcing of a short-period planet. The fate of these waves as they approach the centre of the star depends on their amplitude. We discuss the results of numerical simulations of these waves approaching the centre of a star, and the resulting evolution of the spin of the central regions of the star and the orbit of the planet. If the waves break, we find efficient tidal dissipation, which is not present if the waves perfectly reflect from the centre. This highlights an important amplitude dependence of the (stellar) tidal quality factor Q', which has implications for the survival of planets on short-period orbits around solar-type stars, with radiative cores.
- Publication:
-
Astrophysical Dynamics: From Stars to Galaxies
- Pub Date:
- August 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921311017807
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1102.0861
- Bibcode:
- 2011IAUS..271..363B
- Keywords:
-
- hydrodynamics;
- instabilities;
- waves;
- stars: planetary systems;
- stars: rotation;
- binaries: close;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Physics - Fluid Dynamics
- E-Print:
- 2 pages, 1 figure, to be published in the proceeedings for IAU271