Binary Neutron Stars in Quasi-Equilibrium Circular Orbit: A Fully Relativistic Treatment
Abstract
We present a numerical scheme that solves the initial value problem in full general relativity for a binary neutron star in quasi-equilibrium. While Newtonian gravity allows for a strict equilibrium, a relativistic binary system emits gravitational radiation, causing the system to lose energy and slowly spiral inwards. However, since inspiral occurs on a time scale much longer than the orbital period, we can adopt a quasi-equilibrium approximation. In this approximation, we integrate a subset of the Einstein equations coupled to the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics to solve the initial value problem for binaries of arbitrary separation, down to the innermost stable orbit.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9701033,
title = {Binary Neutron Stars in Quasi-Equilibrium Circular Orbit: A Fully Relativistic Treatment},
author = {Thomas W. Baumgarte and Stuart L. Shapiro and Gregory B. Cook and Mark A. Scheel and Saul A. Teukolsky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9701033},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
3 pages LaTeX using sprocl.sty, 2 figures, to appear in: Proceedings of the 18th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics (eds Olinto, Frieman and Schramm, World Scientific)