Continuous gravitational waves from isolated Galactic neutron stars in the advanced detector era

Abstract

We consider a simulated population of isolated Galactic neutron stars. The rotational frequency of each neutron star evolves through a combination of electromagnetic and gravitational-wave emission. The magnetic field strength dictates the dipolar emission, and the ellipticity (a measure of a neutron star’s deformation) dictates the gravitational-wave emission. Through both analytic and numerical means, we assess the detectability of the Galactic neutron star population and bound the magnetic field strength and ellipticity parameter space of Galactic neutron stars with or without a direct gravitational-wave detection. While our simulated population is primitive, this work establishes a framework by which future efforts can be conducted. © 2012 The American Physical Society