ИСТИНА

Our solar system and stars with exoplanets are natural laboratories for learning the dynamical interactions in complex star-planets systems. In this study we deal with the hypothetical modulating effect of planetary tides on the solar magnetic activity (the solar cycles) that, in turn, may directly or indirectly affects our Earth climate. Specifically, previous works proposing some physical mechanisms of planetary action on the Sun via the tidal forcing have in common that certain quasi-alignments between Venus, Earth and Jupiter (“V-E-J configurations”) would provide a basic periodicity of ~11.0 yr able to synchronize the operation of solar dynamo with these configurations. Nevertheless, the evidence behind this particular tidal forcing is still debatable. Methods: In this context, we have developed, for the first time, the Sun’s tide-generating potential (STGP) in terms of accurate harmonic series, where the effects of various planetary configurations on the STGP are clearly identified and separated. We used a modification of the spectral analysis method devised by Kudryavtsev (J.Geodesy, 77, 829, 2004; Astron. Astrophys., 471, 1069, 2007) that permits an expansion of any function of planetary coordinates to harmonic series over long time intervals. As a result, we have a catalog of 713 harmonic terms characterizing the STGP with a high degree of precision. In this STGP catalog we looked for tidal forcings related to various V-E-J configurations and specifically for terms with periods of ~11.0 yr and ~22.0 yr. Results: The detected tidal periods range from ~1000 yr to 1 week, but we found neither ~11.0 yr period nor ~22.0 yr one in the STGP catalog. The 11-year spectral band is explicitly dominated by Jupiter’s orbital motion. The V-E-J configurations do not produce any discernible terms in the STGP spectrum. The planet that contributes the most to the STGP in a three planets configuration, along with Venus and Earth, is Saturn. Conclusions: a direct physical relevance of planetary tides on the main 11-year-like solar activity cycle is highly improbable. A similar estimation procedure can be generalized to study possible tidal interactions inside the dynamical systems of exoplanets and their parent stars.