Universality of gravitational radiation from magnetar magnetospheres

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that gravitational-wave signals from magnetar magnetospheres are nearly universal, allowing detection of such signals at kiloparsec distances with space-based interferometers, regardless of internal deformations.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of universality in magnetar magnetospheric gravitational radiation, supported by 3D force-free relativistic models, enabling potential detection independent of internal deformation details.

Findings

Magnetospheric gravitational-wave strain is nearly universal across models.

Space-based detectors could detect signals from magnetars up to kiloparsecs away.

Detection is feasible for slowly rotating magnetars with magnetic fields over 10^{15} G.

Abstract

The intense magnetic fields inferred from magnetars suggest they may be strong gravitational-wave emitters. Although emissions due to hydromagnetic deformations are more promising from a detection standpoint, exterior fields also contribute a strain. However, numerical evidence suggests that the free energy of stable magnetospheric solutions cannot exceed a few tens of percent relative to the potential state, implying that the magnetospheric contribution to the gravitational-wave luminosity cannot differ significantly between models. This prompts 'universality', in the sense that the strain provides a direct probe of the near-surface field without being muddied by magnetospheric currents. Using a suite of three-dimensional, force-free, general-relativistic solutions for dipole and dipole-plus-quadrupole fields, we find that space-based interferometers may enable marginal detections out to $\lesssim$ kpc distances for slowly-rotating magnetars with fields of $\gtrsim 10^{15}$ G independently of internal deformations.