Stellar tides have long been recognized to play a crucial role in the dynamics of short-period exoplanet and binary star systems. The observed orbital eccentricities, stellar spins, and stellar obliquities in these systems have all been strongly shaped by tides. Tides are also thought to play an important role in the formation and destruction of exoplanets. Despite the widespread implications, serious gaps exist in our understanding of tidal physics. Because the fluid mechanical processes involved occur under conditions that are impossible to fully reproduce in laboratory experiments or numerical simulations, calibration against observations is required. I will present some recent and ongoing efforts by my research group to use observations to infer what the properties of the tidal friction are, in the hopes that these results will eventually serve to inform our theoretical understanding.
Contact local & organisation : Antoine STRUGAREK
DAp