Dissipation of a tide in a differentially rotating star

Abstract

The orbital period of the binary pulsar PSR J0045-7319, which is located in our neighbouring galaxy the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), appears to be decreasing on a timescale of half a million year. This timescale is more than two orders of magnitude smaller than what is expected from the standard theory of tidal dissipation. Kumar and Quataert (1997a) proposed that this rapid evolution can be understood provided that the neutron star's companion, a main sequence B-star, has set up significant differential rotation. They showed that the spin synchronization time for the B-star is similar to the orbit circularization time, whereas the time to synchronize the surface rotation is much shorter, and thus significant differential rotation in the star is indeed expected. However, their calculation did not include the various processes that can redistribute angular momentum in the star, possibly forcing it into solid body rotation; in that case the dissipation of the tide would not be enhanced. The goal of this paper is to include the redistribution of angular momentum in the B-star due to meridional circulation and shear stresses and to calculate the resulting rotation profile as a function of time. We find that although angular momentum redistribution is important, the B-star continues to have sufficient differential rotation so that tidal waves are entirely absorbed as they arrive at the surface. The mechanism proposed by Kumar and Quataert to speed up the orbital evolution of the SMC binary pulsar should therefore work as suggested.