Stars as resonant absorbers of gravitational waves
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2015-06-19 v2 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
Quadrupole oscillation modes in stars can resonate with incident gravitational waves (GWs), and grow non-linear at the expense of GW energy. Stars near massive black hole binaries (MBHB) can act as GW-charged batteries, cooling radiatively. Mass-loss from these stars can prompt MBHB accretion at near-Eddington rates. GW opacity is independent of amplitude, so distant resonating stars can eclipse GW sources. Absorption by the Sun of GWs from Galactic white dwarf binaries may be detectable with second-generation space-based GW detectors as a shadow within a complex diffraction pattern.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1405.1414,
title = {Stars as resonant absorbers of gravitational waves},
author = {B. McKernan and K. E. S. Ford and B. Kocsis and Z. Haiman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.1414},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
5 pages, 1 figure, MNRAS Letters accepted