Scheme of the geometrical setup considered in the framework of the creep tide theory, partially reproduced from Folonier et al. (2018). On the left, we have the pure static case in which the primary always points toward the companion, which is at a distance r from the primary. On the right, we have the case in which the response of the primary is delayed due to the primary’s nonzero viscosity value. In both panels, is the reference direction used to measure the true anomaly (φ).