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Tidal circularization status of TOI-6038 A b

Ascertain whether TOI-6038 A b’s orbit has been tidally circularized by constraining the planetary tidal quality factor sufficiently to compare the tidal circularization timescale with the system’s age.

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Background

Using plausible tidal quality factors (Qp), the authors compute circularization timescales ranging from ~3.6 Gyr (Qp=105) to ~11.3 Gyr (Qp=105.5). The system age is estimated at 3.65{+0.92}_{-0.85} Gyr, overlapping the shorter timescale but not the longer one.

Because Qp is poorly constrained for sub-Saturns, the current orbital state of TOI-6038 A b (circular vs. not fully circularized) cannot be established without improved constraints on tidal dissipation, motivating targeted measurements and modeling.

References

Therefore, given the uncertainty in the tidal quality factor, it remains unclear whether the orbit of TOI-6038~A~b is tidally circularized.

— TOI-6038 A b: A dense sub-Saturn in the transition regime between the Neptunian ridge and savanna (2501.02272 - Baliwal et al., 4 Jan 2025) in Section “Tidal circularization timescale”