Gravitation, Cosmology, and Cosmic-Ray Physics (1986) / Chapter Skim
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4. Search for Gravitational Waves: Introduction
4. Search for Gravitational Waves: Introduction
Pages 36-41
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From page 36... ...
Their detection would provide an important test, in a new regime, of Einstein's general theory of relativity and might also open a new astronomical window and give new kinds of information about the sources of gravitational waves. Intriguing possible sources are collapsing stellar cores, colliding neutron stars or black holes, decaying binary systems, rotating or vibrating neutron stars, and new sources of unknown nature.
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From page 37... ...
Alternative theories of gravity usually also predict gravitational waves, although with significant differences from the predictions of general relativity. In some such theories (either those with prior geometry or with more than one metric tensor)
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From page 38... ...
The collapse of stellar cores in Type II supernovae may produce millisecond bursts of gravitational radiation provided there is sufficient departure from spherical symmetry in the collapse. A supernova at the center of our galaxy, if it released I part in a thousand of its total mass into gravitational waves, would produce strains*
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From page 39... ...
would emit gravitational radiation as a result of any deviations from axial symmetry; the radiation frequency can be at the pulsar rotation frequency and at twice that frequency. The gravitational wave's strain amplitude is proportional to the ellipticity of the source.
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From page 40... ...
Probable sources include classical binary star systems and white-dwarf binary systems in the 10-i to 10-s Hz region with strain amplitudes of roughly 10-22 to 10-2° and bursts associated with the formation and dynamics of massive black holes. This band contains the only astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation whose properties are well known the nearby binary stellar systems.
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From page 41... ...
Passing gravitational waves cause deviations in both the spacecraft trajectory and the trajectory of the Earth; the characteristic time signature of a gravitational wave in the two-way tracking system helps to discriminate it from other effects in the tracking data. Light travel time to interplanetary spacecraft is minutes or hours, so the experiment is most sensitive to gravitational waves with frequencies in the millihertz band.
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