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Many gaseous exoplanets in short-period orbits are on the verge or are in theprocess of Roche-lobe overflow (RLO). Moreover, orbital stability analysisshows tides can drive many hot Jupiters to spiral inevitably toward their hoststars. Thus, the coupled processes of orbital evolution and RLO likely shapethe observed distribution of close-in exoplanets and may even be responsiblefor producing some of the short-period rocky planets. However, the exactoutcome for an overflowing planet depends on its internal response to massloss, and the accompanying orbital evolution can act to enhance or inhibit RLO.In this study, we apply the fully-featured and robust Modules for Experimentsin Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) suite to model RLO of short-period gaseousplanets. We show that, although the detailed evolution may depend on severalproperties of the planetary system, it is largely determined by the core massof the overflowing gas giant. In particular, we find that the orbital expansionthat accompanies RLO often stops and reverses at a specific maximum period thatdepends on the core mass. We suggest that RLO may often strand the remnant of agas giant near this orbital period, which provides an observational predictionthat can corroborate the hypothesis that short-period gas giants undergo RLO.We conduct a preliminary comparison of this prediction to the observedpopulation of small, short-period planets and find some planets in orbits thatmay be consistent with this picture. To the extent that we can establish someshort-period planets are indeed the remnants of gas giants, that population canelucidate the properties of gas giant cores, the properties of which remainlargely unconstrained.

Tidal Decay and Stable Roche-Lobe Overflow of Short-Period Gaseous Exoplanets