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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2007
We investigate the dynamical response of a non-synchronized hot Jupiter to stellar irradiation. In our current model, the stellar radiation acts like a diurnal thermal forcing from the top of a radiative layer of a hot Jupiter. If the thermal forcing period is longer than the sound speed crossing time of the planet's surface, the forcing can excite internal waves propagating into the planet's interior. When the planet spins faster than its orbital motion, these waves carry negative angular momentum and are damped by radiative loss as they propagate downwards from the upper layer of the radiative zone. As a result, the upper layer gains the angular momentum from the lower layer of the radiative zone. Simple estimates of angular momentum flux are made for all transiting planets.