Signature of Lorentz Violation in Continuous Gravitational-Wave Spectra of Ellipsoidal Neutron Stars

Abstract

We study effects of Lorentz-invariance violation on the rotation of neutron stars (NSs) in the minimal gravitational Standard-Model Extension framework, and calculate the quadrupole radiation generated by them. Aiming at testing Lorentz invariance with observations of continuous gravitational waves (GWs) from rotating NSs in the future, we compare the GW spectra of a rotating ellipsoidal NS under Lorentz-violating gravity with those of a Lorentz-invariant one. The former are found to possess frequency components higher than the second harmonic, which does not happen for the latter, indicating those higher frequency components to be potential signatures of Lorentz violation in continuous GW spectra of rotating NSs.

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures; Invited research article to special issue "Lorentz Violation in Astroparticles and Gravitational Waves", in press