On compressive radial tidal forces

Abstract

Radial tidal forces can be compressive instead of disruptive, a possibility that is frequently overlooked in high level physics courses. For example, radial tidal compression can emerge in extended stellar systems containing a smaller stellar cluster. For particular conditions the tidal field produced by this extended mass distribution can exert on the cluster it contains compressive effects instead of the common disruptive forces. This interesting aspect of gravity can be derived from standard relations given in many textbooks and introductory courses in astronomy and can serve as an opportunity to look closer at some aspects of gravitational physics, stellar dynamics, and differential geometry. The existence of compressive tides at the center of huge stellar systems might suggest new evolutionary scenarios for the formation of stars and primordial galactic formation processes.

22 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Testing Tidal-Torque Theory: I. Spin Amplitude and Direction
• Tidally Compressed Gas in Centers of Early Type and Ultraluminous Galaxies
• Dynamical effects of the radial galactic tide on an Oort cloud of comets for stars with different masses and varying distances from the galactic center
• N-body simulations of globular cluster tides

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Introducing EMP-Pathfinder: modelling the simultaneous formation and evolution of stellar clusters in their host galaxies
• Jeans instability criterion modified by external tidal field
• Formation of central massive objects via tidal compression
• The alignment of galaxies at the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale
• Constraining dark matter sub-structure with the dynamics of astrophysical systems
• Scattering mean-free path in continuous complex media: beyond the Helmholtz equation
• The effect of tidal forces on the Jeans instability criterion in star-forming regions
• Tidal Stretching and Compression in Black Bounce Backgrounds
• Taller in the saddle: constraining CMB physics using saddle points
• Diving into dangerous tides: The impact of galaxy cluster tidal environments on satellite galaxy mass densities
• The secular evolution of a uniform density star cluster immersed in a compressible galactic tidal field
• Tensor classification of structure in smoothed particle hydrodynamics density fields
• Tidal locking and the gravitational fold catastrophe
• Spin-orbit gravitational locking -- an effective potential approach