Description of tides is based on the form of dependence of the geometric lag on the tidal frequency. Some authors assume the lag angle to be constant, others set it to be linear in the frequency. The actual dependence of the lag on the frequency is complicated and is determined by the planet's rheology. A particular form of this dependence will fix the form of the frequency dependence of the tidal quality factor Q. Since at present we know the frequency-dependence of the quality factor, we can reverse our line of reasoning and obtain the appropriate frequency-dependence of the lag. Employment of a realistic frequency-dependence for Q renders considerable changes in timescales defined by tidal dynamics.

Michael Efroimsky

This paper reviews the Serret-Andoyer (SA) canonical formalism in rigid-body dynamics and presents some new results. As is well known, the problem of unsupported and unperturbed rigid rotator can be reduced. The availability of this reduction is offered by the underlying symmetry, which stems from conservation of the angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy. When a perturbation is turned on, these quantities are no longer preserved. Nonetheless, the language of reduced description remains extremely instrumental even in the perturbed case. We describe the canonical reduction performed by the Serret-Andoyer (SA) method, and discuss its applications to attitude dynamics and to the theory of planetary rotation. Specifically, we consider the case of angular-velocity-dependent torques, and discuss the variation-of-parameters-inherent antinomy between canonicity and osculation. Finally, we address the transformation of the Andoyer variables into the action-angle ones, using the method of Sadov.

Pini Gurfil Antonio Elipe William Tangren Michael Efroimsky

We reexamine the popular belief that a telluric planet or satellite on an eccentric orbit can, outside a spin-orbit resonance, be captured in a quasi-static tidal equilibrium called pseudosynchronous rotation. The existence of such configurations was deduced from oversimplified tidal models assuming either a constant tidal torque or a torque linear in the tidal frequency. A more accurate treatment requires that the torque be decomposed into the Darwin-Kaula series over the tidal modes, and that this decomposition be combined with a realistic choice of rheological properties of the mantle. This development demonstrates that there exist no stable equilibrium states for solid planets and moons, other than spin-orbit resonances.

Valeri V. Makarov Michael Efroimsky

The paper addresses the possibility of a young Mars having had a massive moon, which synchronised the rotation of Mars, and gave Mars an initial asymmetric triaxiality to be later boosted by geological processes. It turns out that a moon of less than a third of the lunar mass was capable of producing a sufficient initial triaxiality. The asymmetry of the initial tidal shape of the equator depends on timing: the initial asymmetry is much stronger if the synchronous moon shows up already at the magma-ocean stage. From the moment of synchronisation of Mars' rotation with the moon's orbital motion, and until the moon was eliminated (as one possibility, by an impact in the beginning of the LHB), the moon was sustaining an early value of Mars' rotation rate.

Michael Efroimsky

We use a damped mass-spring model within an N-body code to simulate the tidal evolution of the spin and orbit of a self-gravitating viscoelastic spherical body moving around a point-mass perturber. The damped mass-spring model represents a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic solid. We measure the tidal quality function (the dynamical Love number $\,k_2\,$ divided by the tidal quality factor $\,Q\,$) from the numerically computed tidal drift of the semimajor axis of the binary. The shape of $\,k_2/Q\,$, as a function of the principal tidal frequency, reproduces the kink shape predicted by Efroimsky (2012a; CeMDA 112$\,:\,$283) for the tidal response of near-spherical homogeneous viscoelastic rotators. We demonstrate that we can directly simulate the tidal evolution of spinning viscoelastic objects. In future, the mass-spring N-body model can be generalised to inhomogeneous and/or non-spherical bodies.

Julien Frouard Alice C. Quillen Michael Efroimsky David Giannella

It was believed until very recently that a near-equatorial satellite would always keep up with the planet's equator (with oscillations in inclination, but without a secular drift). As explained in Efroimsky and Goldreich (2004), this opinion originated from a wrong interpretation of a (mathematically correct) result obtained in terms of non-osculating orbital elements. A similar analysis carried out in the language of osculating elements will endow the planetary equations with some extra terms caused by the planet's obliquity change. Some of these terms will be nontrivial, in that they will not be amendments to the disturbing function. Due to the extra terms, the variations of a planet's obliquity may cause a secular drift of its satellite orbit inclination. In this article we set out the analytical formalism for our study of this drift. We demonstrate that, in the case of uniform precession, the drift will be extremely slow, because the first-order terms responsible for the drift will be short-period and, thus, will have vanishing orbital averages (as anticipated 40 years ago by Peter Goldreich), while the secular terms will be of the second order only. However, it turns out that variations of the planetary precession make the first-order terms secular. For example, the planetary nutations will resonate with the satellite's orbital frequency and, thereby, may instigate a secular drift. A detailed study of this process will be offered in the subsequent publication, while here we work out the required mathematical formalism and point out the key aspects of the dynamics.

Michael Efroimsky

In Efroimsky & Makarov (2014), we derived from the first principles a formula for the tidal heating rate in a tidally perturbed homogeneous sphere. We compared it with the formulae used in the literature, and pointed out the differences. Using this result, we now present three case studies - Mercury, Kepler-10b, and a triaxial Io. A very sharp frequency-dependence of k2/Q near spin-orbit resonances yields a similarly sharp dependence of k2/Q on the spin rate. This indicates that physical libration may play a major role in tidal heating of synchronously rotating bodies. The magnitude of libration in the spin rate being defined by the planet's triaxiality, the latter should be a factor determining the dissipation rate. Other parameters equal, a synchronously rotating body with a stronger triaxiality should generate more heat than a similar body of a more symmetrical shape. Further in the paper, we discuss scenarios where initially triaxial objects melt and lose their triaxiality. Thereafter, dissipation in them becomes less intensive; so the bodies freeze. The tidal bulge becomes a new permanent figure, with a new triaxiality lower than the original. In the paper, we also derive simplified, approximate expressions for dissipation rate in a rocky planet of the Maxwell rheology, with a not too small Maxwell time. The three expressions derived pertain to the cases of a synchronous spin, a 3:2 resonance, and a nonresonant rotation; so they can be applied to most close-in super-Earth exoplanets detected thus far. In such bodies, the rate of tidal heating outside of synchronous rotation is weakly dependent on the eccentricity and obliquity, provided both these parameters are small or moderate. According to our calculation, Kepler-10b could hardly survive the great amount of tidal heating without being synchronised, circularised and also reshaped through a complete or partial melt-down.

Valeri V. Makarov Michael Efroimsky

Internal dissipation in a tidally perturbed librating body differs from the tidal dissipation in a steadily spinning rotator. First, libration changes the spectral distribution of tidal damping across the tidal modes, as compared to the case of steady spin. This changes both the tidal heating rate and the tidal torque. Second, while a non-librating rotator experiences alternating deformation only due to the potential force exerted on it by the perturber, a librating body is also subject to a toroidal force proportional to the angular acceleration. Third, while the centrifugal force in a steadily spinning body renders only a permanent deformation, in a librating body this force contains two alternating components $-$ one radial, another a degree-2 potential force. Both contribute to heating, as well as to the tidal torque and potential. We build a formalism to describe dissipation in a homogeneous terrestrial body performing small-amplitude libration in longitude. This formalism incorporates a linear rheological law defining the response of the material to forcing. While the formalism can work with an arbitrary linear rheology, we consider a simple example of a Maxwell material. We show that, independent of rheology, the forced libration in longitude can provide a considerable and even leading input in the tidal heating. Based on the observed parameters, this input amounts to 52% in Phobos, 33% in Mimas, 23% in Enceladus, and 96% in Epimetheus. This supports the hypothesis by Makarov & Efroimsky (2014) that the additional damping due to forced libration may have participated in the early heating up of some moons. As one possibility, a moon could have been chipped by collisions $-$ whereby it acquired a higher triaxiality and a higher forced-libration magnitude and, consequently, a higher heating rate. After the moon warms up, its triaxiality reduces, and so does the tidal heating.

Michael Efroimsky

When a solid body is freely rotating at an angular velocity ${\bf \Omega}$, the ellipsoid of constant angular momentum, in the space $\Omega_1, \Omega_2, \Omega_3$, has poles corresponding to spinning about the minimal-inertia and maximal-inertia axes. The first pole may be considered stable if we neglect the inner dissipation, but becomes unstable if the dissipation is taken into account. This happens because the bodies dissipate energy when they rotate about any axis different from principal. In the case of an oblate symmetrical body, the angular velocity describes a circular cone about the vector of (conserved) angular momentum. In the course of relaxation, the angle of this cone decreases, so that both the angular velocity and the maximal-inertia axis of the body align along the angular momentum. The generic case of an asymmetric body is far more involved. Even the symmetrical prolate body exhibits a sophisticated behaviour, because an infinitesimally small deviation of the body's shape from a rotational symmetry (i.e., a small difference between the largest and second largest moments of inertia) yields libration: the precession trajectory is not a circle but an ellipse. In this article we show that often the most effective internal dissipation takes place at twice the frequency of the body's precession. Applications to precessing asteroids, cosmic-dust alignment, and rotating satellites are discussed.

Michael Efroimsky

We revisit the Lagrange and Delaunay systems of equations for the orbital elements, and point out a previously neglected aspect of these equations: in both cases the orbit resides on a certain 9-dimensional submanifold of the 12-dimensional space spanned by the orbital elements and their time derivatives. We demonstrate that there exists a vast freedom in choosing this submanifold. This freedom of choice (=freedom of gauge fixing) reveals a symmetry hiding behind Lagrange's and Delaunay's systems, which is, mathematically, analogous to the gauge invariance in electrodynamics. Just like a convenient choice of gauge simplifies calculations in electrodynamics, so the freedom of choice of the submanifold may, potentially, be used to create simpler schemes of orbit integration. On the other hand, the presence of this feature may be a previously unrecognised source of numerical instability.

Michael Efroimsky