Continuous-wave gravitational radiation from pulsar glitch recovery

TL;DR

This paper models gravitational waves emitted by neutron stars after glitches, highlighting the dominant current quadrupole contribution and potential detectability with advanced interferometers, offering insights into nuclear matter properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the current quadrupole dominates gravitational wave emission from pulsar glitch recovery, and assesses the detectability and physical inference possibilities.

Findings

Current quadrupole exceeds mass quadrupole in signal strength.

Large glitches may be detectable by advanced gravitational wave detectors.

Detection can reveal properties of nuclear matter inside neutron stars.

Abstract

Nonaxisymmetric, meridional circulation inside a neutron star, excited by a glitch and persisting throughout the post-glitch relaxation phase, emits gravitational radiation. Here, it is shown that the current quadrupole contributes more strongly to the gravitational wave signal than the mass quadrupole evaluated in previous work. We calculate the signal-to-noise ratio for a coherent search and conclude that a large glitch may be detectable by second-generation interferometers like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. It is shown that the viscosity and compressibility of bulk nuclear matter, as well as the stratification length-scale and inclination angle of the star, can be inferred from a gravitational wave detection in principle.