Evidence for a minimum ellipticity in millisecond pulsars [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02822


Neutron stars spin down over time due to a number of energy-loss processes. We provide tantalising population-based evidence that millisecond pulsars have a minimum ellipticity of $\epsilon\approx10^{-9}$ around their spin axis and that consequently some spin down mostly through gravitational-wave emission. We discuss the implications of such a minimum ellipticity in terms of the internal magnetic field strengths and nuclear matter composition of neutron stars and show it would result in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors, or their upgrades, detecting gravitational waves from some known millisecond pulsars in the near future.

Read this paper on arXiv…

G. Woan, M. Pitkin, B. Haskell, et. al.
Fri, 8 Jun 18
32/51

Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures