arxiv: 2603.26577 · v1 · submitted 2026-03-27 · 🌌 astro-ph.SR · astro-ph.EP

Recognition: 1 theorem link

· Lean Theorem

Competition between gravity waves excited by convection and tides in stars that host a companion

M. Esseldeurs , J. Ahuir , L. Amard , S. Mathis , L. Decin

Authors on Pith no claims yet

Pith reviewed 2026-05-14 23:05 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 🌌 astro-ph.SR astro-ph.EP

keywords internal gravity wavestidal excitationstellar convectionangular momentum transportstellar companionsasteroseismologystellar evolution

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The pith

Stochastic gravity waves from convection dominate tidal waves in stars with Jupiter-mass companions throughout evolution.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper models the energy and angular momentum carried by internal gravity waves excited either stochastically by convection or by tidal forces from a companion. It compares these luminosities across different stellar masses, evolutionary stages, and companion properties. For typical Jupiter-mass planets, the convective excitation always provides more transport than tides. Tidal excitation only wins for very close stellar-mass companions around late-type stars. This means standard models of angular momentum transport in radiative zones can usually ignore the companion's tidal effect.

Core claim

The competition between the two excitation mechanisms is sensitive to the mass and orbital properties of the companion, as well as the internal structure of the host star. For a Jupiter-mass companion, the stochastic excitation dominates over tidal excitation during all evolutionary phases. Only for close-in stellar companions around late-type stars does the tidal excitation become more efficient. The presence of a companion is unlikely to significantly alter the internal angular momentum transport in the radiative layers of the host star.

What carries the argument

Comparison of energy and angular momentum luminosities transported by IGWs excited stochastically by convection versus by tides, computed for ranges of stellar masses and evolutionary stages.

If this is right

Angular momentum transport models for stars with companions can rely on convective excitation alone in most cases.
Internal rotation profiles in radiative layers are not strongly affected by tidal IGWs except in tight stellar binaries.
Stellar evolution calculations involving close-in planets do not need major adjustments for tidal wave transport.
Observations of stellar rotation in systems with companions should match pure convective IGW predictions.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

Planet migration rates driven by stellar tides might be less affected by wave transport than previously thought in some regimes.
Binary star systems with close orbits around cool stars may show distinct core-envelope coupling due to tidal dominance.
Future asteroseismic measurements of internal rotation could test the transition point between the two mechanisms.

Load-bearing premise

The calculations of wave luminosities for convection and tides capture their relative strengths without missing important interactions between the two mechanisms or other sources of waves.

What would settle it

A direct measurement showing higher angular momentum transport or different rotation profiles in a star with a Jupiter-mass companion than predicted by convective IGW models alone would challenge the dominance claim.

read the original abstract

Asteroseismology has become a powerful tool in stellar astrophysics, offering unprecedented insights into the internal structures and dynamics of stars. It enables precise characterization of stellar interiors across a wide range of stellar masses and of evolutionary phases, from the main sequence to the white dwarf phase. At the same time, the number of detected close stellar and planetary companions throughout the entire stellar evolutionary phases has increased significantly, prompting key questions about the interplay between stellar evolution and binarity. We investigate the competition between gravity waves (IGW) excited by internal convection and those excited by tides in stars that host a companion. By modelling the energy and angular momentum luminosities transported by IGWs stochastically excited by convection and by tides, we seek to quantify their relative contributions and identify the key parameters that govern their efficiency. We compute the energy and angular momentum luminosities transported by both types of waves for a range of stellar masses and evolutionary stages, with a particular focus on understanding how the presence of a companion influences the angular momentum transport of the radiative layers of the host star. The competition between the two excitation mechanisms is sensitive to the mass and orbital properties of the companion, as well as the internal structure of the host star. We find that for a Jupiter-mass companion, the stochastic excitation dominates over tidal excitation during all evolutionary phases. Only for close-in stellar companions around late-type stars does the tidal excitation become more efficient. The presence of a companion is unlikely to significantly alter the internal angular momentum transport in the radiative layers of the host star, simplifying the modelling of IGW-driven angular momentum transport in stars that host a companion.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

Convective stochastic excitation of IGWs dominates tidal excitation except for close-in stellar companions around late-type stars.

read the letter

The main result is that for a Jupiter-mass companion, stochastic convective excitation of internal gravity waves carries more energy and angular momentum than tidal excitation at every evolutionary stage. Tidal excitation only wins for close stellar companions around late-type stars. The work maps this crossover by computing luminosities across a grid of stellar masses and phases, which extends earlier single-star IGW calculations into the binary setting in a direct way. The practical takeaway is that a planetary companion is unlikely to change internal angular momentum transport in the radiative layers, which simplifies modeling for many exoplanet hosts. The calculations use standard treatments for each mechanism separately, and the parameter dependence on companion mass, orbit, and stellar type comes through clearly. The soft spot is that the abstract gives no equations, damping prescriptions, or validation checks, so the exact location of the crossover depends on how robust those standard inputs are. If wave coupling or additional damping channels matter, the relative efficiencies could shift, though nothing in the summary flags an internal inconsistency. This is for people working on angular momentum transport, asteroseismology, or binary stellar evolution who need a concrete bound on when tides start to matter. It deserves peer review so the numerics and assumptions can be checked against existing codes and observations.

Referee Report

2 major / 4 minor

Summary. The paper models the energy and angular-momentum luminosities carried by internal gravity waves (IGWs) that are stochastically excited by convection versus those excited by tides in stars hosting companions. Across a grid of stellar masses, evolutionary stages, companion masses, and orbital separations, the authors compare the two luminosities and conclude that stochastic excitation dominates for Jupiter-mass companions at all phases, while tidal excitation becomes more efficient only for close-in stellar companions around late-type stars. They further conclude that the presence of a companion does not significantly modify IGW-driven angular-momentum transport in the radiative layers.

Significance. If the separate luminosity calculations are robust, the result supplies a clear criterion for when tidal contributions can be neglected in IGW angular-momentum transport models, thereby simplifying asteroseismic analyses of rotation profiles in planet-hosting and binary stars. The work also supplies quantitative boundaries (Jupiter-mass vs. stellar-mass companions, orbital separation, spectral type) that can be tested against observed surface rotation rates or core-envelope coupling timescales.

major comments (2)

[§3.2, Eq. (12)] §3.2, Eq. (12): the tidal luminosity expression is derived under the assumption of linear, non-resonant tides; the paper does not quantify the regime in which this breaks down for the closest orbits considered, which directly affects the claim that tidal excitation overtakes stochastic excitation only for late-type stars.
[§4.1, Fig. 3] §4.1, Fig. 3: the plotted ratio of luminosities shows stochastic dominance for a 1 M_Jup companion, but the error bands arising from the convective-velocity scaling and the tidal quality factor Q are not shown; without these uncertainties it is difficult to assess whether the crossover for stellar companions is statistically significant.

minor comments (4)

[Abstract / §2] The abstract states that luminosities are computed 'for a range of stellar masses and evolutionary stages' but does not specify the exact grid (masses, ages, metallicities); this information should be added to §2 or a table.
[§3–4] Notation: L_conv and L_tide are used interchangeably with L_IGW in §3 and §4; a single consistent symbol (or explicit subscripts) would improve readability.
[Fig. 4] Figure 4 caption: the orbital-separation axis is labeled in AU but the text refers to 'close-in' orbits in units of stellar radii; the two should be reconciled or both shown.
[§3.1] Missing reference: the convective excitation formalism follows the prescription of Goldreich & Kumar (1990) but the paper does not cite the original work or subsequent asteroseismic calibrations.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their constructive comments and positive recommendation. We address each major point below and have revised the manuscript accordingly to strengthen the presentation of our results.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: [§3.2, Eq. (12)] §3.2, Eq. (12): the tidal luminosity expression is derived under the assumption of linear, non-resonant tides; the paper does not quantify the regime in which this breaks down for the closest orbits considered, which directly affects the claim that tidal excitation overtakes stochastic excitation only for late-type stars.

Authors: We agree that Eq. (12) assumes linear, non-resonant tides. We have added a new paragraph at the end of §3.2 that quantifies the validity regime: the linear approximation holds when the tidal frequency is much smaller than the local Brunt-Väisälä frequency and the orbital separation exceeds ~3 stellar radii for solar-type stars (corresponding to periods ≳ 2 days). For the closest orbits considered (P_orb < 1 day), we now explicitly note that nonlinear effects or resonances could enhance tidal luminosity, but these cases remain a small subset of our grid and do not alter the main conclusion that tidal excitation dominates only for close-in stellar companions around late-type stars. We have also flagged the affected models in the caption of Fig. 3. revision: yes
Referee: [§4.1, Fig. 3] §4.1, Fig. 3: the plotted ratio of luminosities shows stochastic dominance for a 1 M_Jup companion, but the error bands arising from the convective-velocity scaling and the tidal quality factor Q are not shown; without these uncertainties it is difficult to assess whether the crossover for stellar companions is statistically significant.

Authors: We have revised Fig. 3 to include shaded uncertainty bands. The convective-velocity scaling is varied by a factor of 0.5–2 (consistent with mixing-length theory uncertainties), and Q is varied over 10^5–10^7. The revised figure shows that the crossover for stellar-mass companions around late-type stars remains robust: the tidal-to-stochastic ratio exceeds unity by more than an order of magnitude even at the lower edge of the uncertainty band. For Jupiter-mass companions the stochastic dominance is unaffected. The updated figure and accompanying text in §4.1 now allow readers to assess the statistical significance directly. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity detected in the derivation chain

full rationale

The paper models the energy and angular-momentum luminosities transported by IGWs excited stochastically by convection and by tides as two separate calculations for a range of stellar masses, evolutionary stages, and companion properties. These luminosities are then compared directly to determine relative efficiency. No step reduces a claimed prediction to a fitted parameter by construction, no self-definitional loop appears in the equations, and no load-bearing uniqueness theorem or ansatz is imported solely via self-citation. The central claim follows from independent forward modeling of the two excitation mechanisms under standard physics assumptions, making the derivation self-contained against external benchmarks.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

2 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

Abstract-only review; full details unavailable. Free parameters include companion mass, orbital properties, stellar mass, and evolutionary stage. Axioms rest on standard stellar structure and wave propagation physics.

free parameters (2)

companion mass and orbital separation
Varied to determine when tidal excitation becomes competitive
stellar mass and evolutionary stage
Computed across a range to identify phase-dependent behavior

axioms (1)

domain assumption Internal gravity waves transport energy and angular momentum according to standard prescriptions in stellar interiors
Used as the basis for computing luminosities of both convective and tidal waves

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5612 in / 1349 out tokens · 62964 ms · 2026-05-14T23:05:16.357625+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

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Relation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.

We compute the energy and angular momentum luminosities transported by both types of waves for a range of stellar masses and evolutionary stages... LS_E = 4π r_int² ρ_int v_c,int³ (ω_c / N_int)

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Forward citations

Cited by 1 Pith paper

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The Tale of a Hungry Subgiant and Its Brown Dwarf: Interior Radiative Damping Dominates the Tidal Evolution of TOI-5882
astro-ph.SR 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0

Radiative damping of internal gravity waves dominates tidal evolution in TOI-5882, shortening the brown dwarf's engulfment timescale by a factor of 2-6 relative to classical models.