Consider two nonelastic spherical bodies with uniformly distributed density, a small such body in a circular orbit around the bigger one.
And consider the smaller body's rotation is matched (as if "tidally locked") to its orbit so the same hemisphere always faces the larger body.
Now, here's my question: a particle on the daylight surface of the orbiting body is orbiting the "sun" with a smaller radius than a particle resting on the "night" side. If the two particles weren't attached to the body, the daylight particle would have a faster solar orbit and the nighttime particle a slower orbit.
Would this not impart a retrograde rotational force on the orbiting body? If this is an already understood concept, what is it called? I read up on tidal locking and tidal acceleration on Wikipedia, and this dynamic wasn't mentioned.
I think it's kind of interesting because I never thought about tidal forces doing anything with inelastic objects.