Anisotropic tidal dissipation in misaligned planetary systems

IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, 77 Avenue Denfert-Rochereau, Paris 75014, France

^★ Corresponding author; pierre.auclair-desrotour@obspm.fr

Received: 15 November 2024
Accepted: 16 December 2024

Abstract

Context. Tides are the main driving force behind the long-term evolution of planetary systems. The associated energy dissipation and momentum exchanges are commonly described by Love numbers, which relate the exciting potential to the tidally perturbed potential. These transfer functions are generally assumed to depend solely on tidal frequency and body rheology, following the isotropic assumption, which presumes invariance of properties by rotation about the centre of mass.

Aims. We examine the limitations of the isotropic assumption for fluid bodies, in which Coriolis acceleration breaks spherical symmetry, resulting in rotational scattering and complex tidal responses.

Methods. Using angular momentum theory, we derived a new formalism to calculate the tidal rates of energy and momentum transfers in non-isotropic cases. We applied this formalism to the Earth-Moon system to assess the effects of anisotropy in planet-satellite systems with misaligned spin and orbital angular momenta.

Results. Our findings indicate that the isotropic assumption can introduce significant errors in planetary evolution models, particularly in the dynamical tide regime. These errors stem from forced wave resonances, with inaccuracies in energy dissipation scaling in proportion to resonance amplification factors.