Exomoon Survival Around Hot Jupiters: Tidal Stripping and Orbital Decay Budgets

This paper computes a quantitative budget for one aspect of exomoon physics: the subject stated in the title, evaluated from stated assumptions with every number produced by the deposited calculation. Headline results are hot_hill_Rjup = 7.3; hot_prograde_limit_Rjup = 3.6; warm_prograde_limit_Rjup = 14; temperate_prograde_limit_Rjup = 72. Hot Jupiters, giant planets orbiting within a few hundredths of an astronomical unit of their stars, are the easiest giant planets to find and among the least likely to keep moons. Their Hill spheres are so compressed by the star's proximity that the entire stable zone for a prograde satellite spans only a handful of planetary radii, a region simultaneously scoured by tides. This paper computes th The results are compared with published Solar System values and with the constraints attached to reported exomoon candidates where those apply, and the conditions under which the computed budget would change are stated explicitly. Computed from stated assumptions, not measured.