Seminar: Accreting neutron stars as gravitational wave sources

Presented by Duncan Galloway, Monash Fellow

Rapidly-rotating neutron stars are promising candidates for detection by advanced gravitational wave observatories such as Advanced LIGO. Our present knowledge of the spin frequencies of these systems comes from detection of pulsations in the radio or X-ray bands. For accreting neutron stars, X-ray pulsations are detected only in some sources, and sometimes intermittently, notably at the peak of some thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts.

I will describe the present status and recent progress of searches for  X-ray pulsations in these systems, focussing on the recent detection of 552 Hz oscillations in EXO 0748-676. I will also talk about the prospects for gravitational wave detection from these systems, and give examples of electromagnetic observations which will improve the sensitivity of future searches.