Inflating Hot Jupiters with Ohmic Dissipation
- Creators
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Batygin, Konstantin
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Stevenson, David J.
Abstract
We present a new, magnetohydrodynamic mechanism for inflation of close-in giant extrasolar planets. The idea behind the mechanism is that current, which is induced through interaction of atmospheric winds and the planetary magnetic field, results in significant Ohmic dissipation of energy in the interior. We develop an analytical model for computation of interior Ohmic dissipation, with a simplified treatment of the atmosphere. We apply our model to HD209458b, Tres-4b, and HD189733b. With conservative assumptions for wind speed and field strength, our model predicts a generated power that appears to be large enough to maintain the transit radii, opening an unexplored avenue toward solving a decade-old puzzle of extrasolar gas giant radius anomalies.
Additional Information
© 2010 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 February 18; accepted 2010 March 23; published 2010 April 15. We thank G. Laughlin, P. Bodenheimer, D. Charbonneau, A. Showman, J. Liu, H. Knutson, A. Wolf, and M. Line for useful discussions and the anonymous referee for insightful commentsAttached Files
Published - Batygin2010p10084Astrophys_J_Lett.pdf
Submitted - 1002.3650.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 18395
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100521-133419708
- Created
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2010-05-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences