Gravitational Radiation from Strongly Magnetized White Dwarfs

Abstract

The magnetic fields of white dwarfs distort their shape generating an anisotropic moment of inertia. A magnetized white dwarf which rotates obliquely relative to the symmetry axis has a mass quadrupole moment which varies in time, so it will emit gravitational radiation. LISA may be able to detect the gravitational waves from two nearby, quickly rotating white dwarfs.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, to appear in MNRAS, corrected a ubiquitous typo and added two reference