Are Hot Jupiters Tidally Disrupted During Stellar Main Sequence?

Abstract: Once hot Jupiters (HJs) reach their very close orbits, they are expected to experience orbital decay due to tidal interactions with their host star. However, the strength of tidal dissipation is highly uncertain, and it remains an open question whether HJs are tidally disrupted during the stellar main sequence. A previous study found that HJ hosts have a smaller Galactic total velocity dispersion than their field star counterparts, which they interpreted as evidence of tidal disruption. We revisit this study and find that, after using the more reliable vertical velocity dispersion ($σ_W$) as the age indicator and accounting for the heterogeneity and anisotropy of their HJ sample, the kinematic age difference between their HJ hosts and matched field stars is significantly reduced. As an independent check, we collect HJs newly discovered by TESS and find that their $σ_W$ is statistically similar to that of matched field stars. We also find no statistically significant $σ_W$ difference between the field stars and the theoretically vulnerable ultra-hot Jupiters with $P<2$ d. Our results suggest that, after accounting for systematics in the age--velocity dispersion relation, there is no statistically strong evidence from the stellar kinematics that a large fraction of hot Jupiters around Sun-like stars are tidally destroyed during the stellar main sequence.