Magnetic effect on equilibrium tides and its influence on the orbital evolution of binary systems

Abstract

In the standard theory of equilibrium tides, hydrodynamic turbulence is considered. In this paper we study the effect of magnetic fields on equilibrium tides. We find that the turbulent Ohmic dissipation associated with a tidal flow is much stronger than the turbulent viscous dissipation such that a magnetic field can greatly speed up the tidal evolution of a binary system. We then apply the theory to three binary systems: the orbital migration of 51 Pegasi b, the orbital decay of WASP-12b, and the circularization of close binary stars. Theoretical predictions are in good agreement with observations, which cannot be clearly interpreted with hydrodynamic equilibrium tides.