Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Dynamical Tides in Binaries: Merging White Dwarfs, Kepler KOI-54 and Hot Jupiter Systems

Dong Lai

Cornell University

Dynamical tides, involving the excitation and dissipation of waves and oscillation modes, play an important role in many different binary systems. I will discuss recent works on dynamical tides in three types of systems: (i) Compact white dwarf binaries undergoing orbital decay due to gravitational radiation; (ii) An eccentric main-sequence star binary exhibiting tidally induced oscillations; (iii) Exoplanetary systems containing hot Jupiters and misaligned host stars.