Direct Detection of Gravity Waves from Neutron Stars

TL;DR

This paper revisits earlier ideas on detecting gravitational waves from neutron stars, confirming the potential for direct detection through pulsar timing with future radio telescopes like SKA.

Contribution

It re-derives the gravitational wave detection effect, confirming the 1/b dependence and feasibility of detecting faint waves from neutron stars via pulsar timing.

Findings

Potential detection of gravitational waves with 10 ns/sec timing precision.

Feasibility of one-year pulsar timing experiments with SKA-like instruments.

Confirmation of the 1/b dependence in gravitational wave effects.

Abstract

In light of the discovery of the first-ever double pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039, we re-examine an earlier proposal to directly detect gravity waves from neutron stars, which was predicated on a hypothetical system almost identical to the later discovered double pulsar. We re-derive the effect in more detail, and confirm the initial estimate--sometimes doubted in the literature--that it includes a 1/b dependence, where b is the impact parameter of a pulsar with respect to its foreground, gravity-wave emitting, neutron star companion. A coherent modulation in pulsar time-of-arrival measurements of 10 nano-sec/sec is possible. A one-year intermittent experiment on an instrument comparable to the SKA could thus detect the exceedingly faint gravity waves from individual neutron stars.