Gravitational waves from gaps of neutron stars

The pulsar magnetosphere is a potential source of continuous gravitational waves due to the rapid charge-discharge process in short timescale, varying the electric-field energy density. We estimate the strain of the continuous gravitational waves, considering relativistic effects and different gap regions. We find that the strain from the polar cap is too small, in contrast to previous results. On the other hand, the strain from the outer gap is as large as $\sim2\times10^{-24}$, enough for future gravitational-wave detection such as the Einstein Telescope. Our result presents a new approach for the future detection of gravitational waves to probe the physics in the magnetosphere.