Structure and Evolution of Internally Heated Hot Jupiters

Hot Jupiters receive strong stellar irradiation, producing equilibrium temperatures of 1000-2500 K. Incoming irradiation directly heats just their thin outer layer, down to pressures of ∼0.1 bars. In standard irradiated evolution models of hot Jupiters, predicted transit radii are too small. Previous studies have shown that deeper heating - at a small fraction of the heating rate from irradiation - can explain observed radii. Here we present a suite of evolution models for HD 209458b, where we systematically vary both the depth and intensity of internal heating, without specifying the uncertain heating mechanism(s). Our models start with a hot, high-entropy planet whose radius decreases as the convective interior cools. The applied heating suppresses this cooling. We find that very shallow heating - at pressures of 1-10 bars - does not significantly suppress cooling, unless the total heating rate is > 10% of the incident stellar power. Deeper heating, at 100 bars, requires heating at only 1% of the stellar irradiation to explain the observed transit radius of 1.4 R_Jup after 5 Gyr of cooling. In general, more intense and deeper heating results in larger hot-Jupiter radii. Surprisingly, we find that heat deposited at 10⁴ bars - which is exterior to ≈ 99% of the planet's mass - suppresses planetary cooling as effectively as heating at the center. In summary, we find that relatively shallow heating is required to explain the radii of most hot Jupiters, provided that this heat is applied early and persists throughout their evolution.