Gravitational Waves From Pulsars Due To Their Magnetic Ellipticity

TL;DR

This paper examines the potential for gravitational wave emission from pulsars with magnetic ellipticity, concluding that detection with current or planned detectors is unlikely due to low signal strength.

Contribution

It extends previous studies to all known pulsars, analyzing the impact of magnetic ellipticity on gravitational wave emission and pulsar braking indices.

Findings

Detection prospects are pessimistic with current detectors.

Magnetic ellipticity likely produces gravitational waves below detection thresholds.

Most pulsars' gravitational wave signals are too weak for planned detectors.

Abstract

We discuss some aspects of de Araujo, Coelho & Costa (2016, 2017) concerning the role of a time dependent magnetic ellipticity on the pulsars' braking indices and on the putative gravitational waves (GWs) these objects can emit. Since only nine of more than 2000 known pulsars have accurately measured braking indices, it is of interest to extend this study to all known pulsars, in particular as regards GW generation. In summary, our results show a pessimistic prospect for the detection of GWs generated by these pulsars, even for advanced detectors such as aLIGO and AdVirgo, and the planned Einstein Telescope, would not be able to detect these pulsar, if the ellipticity has magnetic origin.