Tidal Dissipation from Circularization in Kepler Binaries

Understanding tidal dissipation is a requisite step for explaining the evolution of systems such as short-period binaries. This understanding has not yet been achieved, and in fact there are many different approaches to modelling tides. By using Bayesian analysis on a system-by-system basis, we provide additional constraints on dissipation for 105 short-period Sun-like Kepler binaries. We account for period-dependent Q and stellar evolution, and propagate observational uncertainties to uncertainties in our constraints. We find a group constraint of Q*' about 6.75, with no apparent dependence on tidal period. We also do not detect mass dependence for Q. Our inferred prescription for the tidal dissipation successfully reproduces the unexpected overlap between almost perfectly circular and significantly non-circular orbits in binaries of Sun-like stars reported by arXiv:2112.05868.