Gravitational Waves from Compact Sources

We review sources of high-frequency gravitational waves, summarizing our current understanding of emission mechanisms, expected amplitudes and event rates. The most promising sources are gravitational collapse (formation of black holes or neutron stars) and subsequent ringing of the compact star, secular or dynamical rotational instabilities and high-mass compact objects formed through the merger of binary neutron stars. Significant and unique information for the various stages of the collapse, the structure of protoneutron stars and the high density equation of state of compact objects can be drawn from careful study of gravitational wave signals.Comment: 22 pages, Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop "New Worlds in Astroparticle Physics", Faro, Portugal, 8-10 January 200

TIDAL AND TIDAL-RESONANT EFFECTS IN COALESCING BINARIES

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.Comment: 17 pages, latex (mn.sty), 5 figures, M.N.R.A.S. in pres

A Semi-analytic Study of Axial Perturbations of Ultra Compact Stars

Compact object perturbations, at linear order, often lead in solving one or more coupled wave equations. The study of these equations was typically done by numerical or semi-analytical methods. The WKB method and the associated Bohr-Sommerfeld rule have been proved extremely useful tools in the study of black-hole perturbations and the estimation of the related quasi-normal modes. Here we present an extension of the aforementioned semi-analytic methods in the study of perturbations of ultra-compact stars and gravastars.Comment: Accepted for publication in CQG, 13 pages, 3 figures, 5 table

The Photon Spectrum of Asymmetric Dark Stars

Asymmetric Dark Stars, i.e., compact objects formed from the collapse of asymmetric dark matter could potentially produce a detectable photon flux if dark matter particles self-interact via dark photons that kinetically mix with ordinary photons. The morphology of the emitted spectrum is significantly different and therefore distinguishable from a typical black-body one. Given the above and the fact that asymmetric dark stars can have masses outside the range of neutron stars, the detection of such a spectrum can be considered as a smoking gun signature for the existence of these exotic stars.Comment: Minor changes to match the version published on IJMP

The stochastic background of gravitational waves due to the f-mode instability in neutron stars

This paper presents an estimate for the spectral properties of the stochastic background of gravitational waves emitted by a population of hot, young, rapidly rotating neutron stars throughout the Universe undergoing $f$-mode instabilities, formed through either core-collapse supernova explosions or the merger of binary neutron star systems. Their formation rate, from which the gravitational wave event rate is obtained, is deduced from observation-based determinations of the cosmic star formation rate. The gravitational wave emission occurs during the spin-down phase of the $f$-mode instability. For low magnetized neutron stars and assuming 10\% of supernova events lead to $f$-mode unstable neutron stars, the background from supernova-derived neutron stars peaks at $\Omega_{\text{gw}} \sim 10^{-9}$ for the $l=m=2$ $f$-mode, which should be detectable by cross-correlating a pair of second generation interferometers (e.g. Advanced LIGO/Virgo) with an upper estimate for the signal-to-noise ratio of $\approx$ 9.8. The background from supramassive neutron stars formed from binary mergers peaks at $\Omega_{\text{gw}} \sim 10^{-10}$ and should not be detectable, even with third generation interferometers (e.g. Einstein Telescope)