The impact of tidal locking on Earth-like planetary dynamos

Abstract

We investigate how tidal locking affects the planetary dynamo and the magnetospheres of Earth-like planets orbiting the habitable zones of M dwarfs. We couple an empirical stellar wind model with two distinct planetary dynamo paradigms, direct rotational scaling and energy-flux scaling, using a Constant Time Lag (CTL) model to simulate continuous tidal spin-down until synchronization. We model two hypothetical planets based on a highly dissipative Modern Earth and a less dissipative, rapidly rotating Early Earth representative of the Paleoarchean. Our results show that tidal locking acts as a severe negative feedback on planetary magnetism across both paradigms, where the dipolar field frequently collapses before full tidal synchronization is reached. Essentially, a shielded atmospheric environment around M dwarfs requires a host massive enough ($\geq 0.32 M_\odot$) to place the HZ at wider orbital distances, sparing the planet from the sub-Alfvénic environment, and the internal tidal dissipation of the planet must be sufficiently low to prevent rapid rotational decay. For mid-to-late M dwarfs, the inevitable tidal locking and the extreme stellar wind pressures result in a total collapse of the magnetic shield, reducing the likelihood of atmospheric protection to essentially zero across the habitable zone.