Probing Intrinsic Ellipticity in Neutron Star Binaries

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spin-orbit resonance mechanism in neutron star binaries caused by ellipticity, deriving its effects on gravitational waveforms and exploring its detectability with current and future detectors.

Contribution

The study proposes a new resonance mechanism linked to neutron star ellipticity, deriving its waveform effects and analyzing its potential for detection in gravitational wave data.

Findings

Resonance probability scales with the square root of ellipticity

No resonance events detected in current data

Future detectors could identify or constrain this resonance

Abstract

We present a novel resonance mechanism that can naturally occur in neutron star binaries: a spin-orbit resonance. This resonance locks the binary into a unique state where the neutron star spin evolves alongside the orbit. The resonance requires a finite neutron star ellipticity $\epsilon$ possibly sourced by strong internal magnetic fields in magnetars, which are motivated by population study of eccentric neutron star-black hole binary GW200105. We find that the locking probability is proportional to $\sqrt{\epsilon}$. We derive the phase correction in the gravitational waveform due to this resonance locking effect, and have conducted a search in all neutron star binaries up to the O4a gravitational-wave catalog, with no positive event found so far. Observations by next-generation detectors such as Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, or even the upcoming upgrade of Advanced LIGO, have the potential to detect such locking signals, enabling precise measurements of both neutron star's ellipticity and moment of inertia. Future searches should be performed to discover this resonance, or, if undetected, to place constraints on the magnetar fraction in neutron star binaries.