Speaker
Description
Gaia DR3 has provided an unprecedented view of orbital eccentricity damping by tides raised in stellar binaries, both on and off the main sequence. These data reinforce a longstanding discrepancy between the efficiency of tidal circularization observed in binaries with constituent stars on the main sequence or the early red giant branch, viz-a-viz the circularization predicted by classical “equilibrium” tidal theory. Here I demonstrate that tidally driven inertial waves in the convective envelopes of low-mass stars and giant planets can enhance eccentricity damping by orders of magnitude over equilibrium tides, independent of many uncertainties related to the impact of convective turbulence. This mechanism provides a possible reconciliation between observed and theoretically predicted circularization rates for solar-type binaries, and may influence the high-eccentricity migration of proto-hot Jupiters. At the same time, this channel of tidal eccentricity damping makes novel predictions for spin evolution and heating rates.
