Dynamical Tidal Love Numbers of Rapidly Rotating Planets and Stars

Tidal interactions play an important role in many astrophysical systems, but uncertainties regarding the tides of rapidly rotating stars and gaseous planets remain. In this presentation, I will describe recent research focused on the dynamical tidal response of rotating, centrifugally distorted planets and stars. We compute the frequency-dependent Love numbers of polytropes with indices appropriate for gas giants and some neutron stars, and rotation rates up to ~90% of “break-up.” Through a representative application to Jupiter, we evaluate the potential relevance of inertial wave resonances with the planet’s satellite moons, and also provide an analytical explanation for anomalously large values of “tesseral” Love numbers measured by the satellite Juno. At rapid rotation rates close to break-up, we find strong mode mixing associated with “avoided crossings,” and explore the interplay between tidal resonance and the secular Chandrasekhar-Friedman-Schutz instability. We additionally tabulate polynomial fits to relevant normal mode properties, providing a much simpler method of computing the tidal response across a wide range of rotation rates.