Related papers: LMXBs may be important LIGO sources after all
Several recent surprises appear dramatically to have improved the likelihood that the spin of rapidly rotating, newly formed neutron stars (and, possibly, of old stars spun up by accretion) is limited by a nonaxisymmetric instability driven…
Recently Andersson et. al., and Bildsten have independently suggested that an r-mode instability might be responsible for stalling the neutron-star spin-up in strongly accreting, Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs). We show that if this does…
We have investigated an influence of the r-mode instability on hypercritically accreting ($\dot{M}\sim 1M_\odot {y}^{-1}$) neutron stars in close binary systems during their common envelope phases based on the scenario proposed by Bethe et…
Since the last Amaldi meeting in 1997 we have learned that the r-modes of rapidly rotating neutron stars are unstable to gravitational radiation reaction in astrophysically realistic conditions. Newborn neutron stars rotating more rapidly…
The coupled evolution of the spin frequency, core temperature, and r-mode amplitude of an accreting neutron star is calculated. We focus on those conditions that can produce persistent gravitational radiation from the r-mode. During X-ray…
Gravitational radiation drives an instability in the r-modes of young rapidly rotating neutron stars. This instability is expected to carry away most of the angular momentum of the star by gravitational radiation emission, leaving a star…
A newly discovered instability in rotating neutron stars, driven by gravitational radiation reaction acting on the stars' $r$-modes, is shown here to set an upper limit on the spin rate of young neutron stars. We calculate the timescales…
The gravitational-wave and accretion driven evolution of neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries and similar systems is analyzed, while the amplitude of the radiating perturbation (here assumed to be an r-mode) remains small. If most of…
Gravitational radiation (GR) drives an instability in certain modes of rotating stars. This instability is strong enough in the case of the r-modes to cause their amplitudes to grow on a timescale of tens of seconds in rapidly rotating…
Recent discoveries by the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer indicate that most of the rapidly accreting and weakly magnetic neutron stars in the Galaxy are rotating at spin frequencies greater than 250 Hz. Remarkably, they all rotate in a narrow…
We summarize the observations of the spin periods of rapidly accreting neutron stars. If gravitational radiation is responsible for balancing the accretion torque at the observed spin frequencies of ~300 Hz, then the brightest of these…
We model the nonlinear saturation of the r-mode instability via three-mode couplings and the effects of the instability on the spin evolution of young neutron stars. We include one mode triplet consisting of the r-mode and two near resonant…
We present a simple spin evolution model that predicts that rapidly rotating accreting neutron stars will mainly be confined to a narrow range of spin-frequencies; P= 1.5-5 ms. This is in agreement with current observations of both neutron…
The instability in the r-modes of rotating neutron stars can (in principle) emit substantial amounts of gravitational radiation (GR) which might be detectable by LIGO and similar detectors. Estimates are given here of the detectability of…
The gravitational-wave and accretion driven evolution of the angular velocity, core temperature, and (small) amplitude of an r-mode of neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries and similar systems is investigated. The conditions required for…
In this review we summarize the current understanding of the gravitational-wave driven instability associated with the so-called r-modes in rotating neutron stars. We discuss the nature of the r-modes, the detailed mechanics of the…
We compare the rotation rate of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) with the orbital period of the binaries. We find that, while short orbital period LMXBs span a range of neutron star rotation rates, all the long period LMXBs…
Recent theoretical work has made it plausible for neutron stars (NSs) to lose angular momentum via gravitational radiation on long timescales (around Myrs) while actively accreting. The gravitational waves (GWs) can either be emitted via…
The fastest-spinning neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries, despite having undergone millions of years of accretion, have been observed to spin well below the Keplerian break-up frequency. We simulate the spin evolution of synthetic…
Differential rotation induced by the r-mode instability can generate very strong toroidal fields in the core of accreting, millisecond spinning neutron stars. We introduce explicitly the magnetic damping term in the evolution equations of…