= Solution
<Hot-Jupiter radius inflation> is the excess <radius> of many irradiated gas giants relative to standard cooling models of the same <mass>, composition and age. A young gas giant starts with high <entropy> and a large <radius>, but ordinarily contracts through <Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction>. An old inflated object must either retain that thermal reservoir unusually well or receive power that affects the deep interior.
The first class is <delayed cooling of an inflated giant planet>. Two specific mechanisms are increased atmospheric <opacity>, which makes internal radiation escape less readily, and inhibited interior <convection> caused by composition gradients, potentially with layered transport. Both slow entropy loss. Stellar irradiation can also maintain an outer radiative blanket, but an appropriate irradiated boundary is already included in many baseline models and does not alone explain every extreme <radius>.
The second class is <heating of an inflated giant planet>. Two mechanisms are <tidal heating> from eccentricity, obliquity or other time-dependent tidal forcing, and <Joule heating> from wind-driven electric currents in an ionized atmosphere coupled to the <magnetic field>. Mechanical energy carried inward from atmospheric circulation is another candidate. Heating must be deposited sufficiently deeply and with sufficient power; superficial absorption that is promptly reradiated is not equivalent to deep interior heating. A circular synchronized isolated orbit does not automatically provide a persistent tidal source.
$$
\boxed{\text{Retain heat: higher opacity or inhibited convection;}\qquad
\text{add deep heat: tides or electrical dissipation}.}
$$
The classes can coexist and are tested through radius-age-irradiation trends, orbital properties and the required energy budget. Merely changing an observed transit altitude by a few <atmospheric scale heights> is generally distinct from inflating the bulk giant-planet interior.
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