Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

A large fraction of exoplanetary systems contain planets that orbit very close to their host stars. With orbital periods in the range of days to weeks, tidal forces become important and lead to significant orbital and physical effects on the planets. In particular, time-varying tidal deformations lead to planetary orbital decay and tidal heating in the planetary interiors, which manifests physically as radius inflation. This talk will focus on various observational mysteries of short-period exoplanet demographics and show how tidal dynamics offer a compelling explanation for these puzzles. I will close by highlighting how our tidal theories can be tested with ongoing JWST observations.