  Close-in extrasolar gas giants -- the hot Jupiters -- display departures in
radius above the zero-temperature solution, the radius excess, that are
anomalously high. The radius excess of hot Jupiters follows a relatively close
relation with thermal tidal tidal torques and holds for ~ 4-5 orders of
magnitude in a characteristic thermal tidal power in such a way that is
consistent with basic theoretical expectations. The relation suggests that
thermal tidal torques determine the global thermodynamic and spin state of the
hot Jupiters. On empirical grounds, it is shown that theories of hot Jupiter
inflation that invoke a constant fraction of the stellar flux to be deposited
at great depth are, essentially, falsified.
