Gravitational Waves from Periodic Three-Body Systems

TL;DR

This paper computes gravitational waveforms and luminosities for 24 recently discovered three-body periodic orbits under Newtonian gravity, revealing distinct wave signatures and large luminosity variations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed gravitational wave predictions for multiple three-body periodic orbits, highlighting their distinguishable waveforms and luminosity ranges.

Findings

Each orbit has a unique gravitational waveform.

Luminosities vary by up to 13 orders of magnitude in mean.

Peak luminosities differ by up to 20 orders of magnitude.

Abstract

Three bodies moving in a periodic orbit under the influence of Newtonian gravity ought to emit gravitational waves. We have calculated the gravitational radiation quadrupolar waveforms and the corresponding luminosities for the 13+11 recently discovered three-body periodic orbits in Newtonian gravity. These waves clearly allow one to distinguish between their sources: all 13+11 orbits have different waveforms and their luminosities (evaluated at the same orbit energy and body mass) vary by up to 13 orders of magnitude in the mean, and up to 20 orders of magnitude for the peak values.