R-mode astronomy

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of next-generation gravitational wave detectors to identify continuous signals from r-mode oscillations in compact stars, enabling detailed insights into their properties through combined gravitational and electromagnetic observations.

Contribution

It introduces the prospects of detecting r-mode oscillations and inferring dense matter properties using multi-messenger data, which is a novel approach in astrophysics.

Findings

Potential to measure star mass and radius accurately

Ability to constrain the equation of state of dense matter

Feasibility of detecting r-mode signals with future detectors

Abstract

Next generation gravitational wave detectors will start taking data in the near future. Here we discuss the chances to detect the continuous emission from r-mode oscillations in compact stars and study which properties of compact stars we can infer from such novel data. In particular we show that the combination of the gravitational wave data with electromagnetic multi-messenger observations could give us detailed insight into compact star properties, ranging from precise mass-radius measurements to the determination of the equation of state and the phase structure of dense matter.