TIDAL AND TIDAL-RESONANT EFFECTS IN COALESCING BINARIES

TL;DR

This paper investigates tidal and resonant effects in coalescing binary systems using numerical simulations, highlighting the dominance of f-modes, the significance of g-mode resonances, and implications for gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of tidal interactions, including resonances, in binary systems with polytropic stars, extending understanding of their impact on gravitational wave signals.

Findings

Tidal effects are dominated by non-resonant f-modes.

g-mode resonances can significantly influence the dynamics.

A characteristic plunge orbit limits system stability.

Abstract

Tidal and tidal-resonant effects in coalescing compact binary systems are investigated by direct numerical integration of the equations of motion. For the stars polytropic models are used. The tidal effects are found to be dominated by the (non-resonant) $f$-modes. The effect of the $g$-mode-tidal resonances is obtained. The tidal interaction is shown to be of interest especially for low-mass binaries. There exists a characteristic final plunge orbit beyond which the system cannot remain stable even if radiation reaction is not taken into account; in agreement with results obtained by Lai et al. \shortcite{Lai93}. The importance of the investigated effects for the observation of gravitational waves on Earth is discussed.