Tidal Locking of the Planet Candidate Gl 581 d

Overview

This example shows tidal locking for the planet candidate Gl 581 d.

Date

04/09/2019

Author

Rory Barnes

Modules

EqTide

Approx. runtime

10 seconds

Although Gl 581 d is no longer thought to be a planet, this example reproduces Fig. 6 in Heller et al. (2011) and validates the EqTide module. Results for the rotational period and obliquity for both the “constant-phase-lag” (CPL) and “constant-time-lag” (CTL) models are compared.

To run this example

python makeplot.py <pdf | png>

Expected output

examples/TideLock.png

Left: Rotational period evolution for the CPL (dashed curve) and CTL (solid curve) assuming an initial rotation period of 1 day, a tidal Q of 100, and and obliquity of 23.5 degrees. Right: Same, but for obliquity.