Role of particle diffusion in shaping the gravitational wave signal from neutron star inspirals

Abstract

It is commonly believed that the dissipative properties of superdense matter play a negligible role in modeling gravitational waveforms from neutron star inspirals. This study aims to investigate whether this presumption holds true for the often neglected dissipative process associated with particle diffusion in superconducting neutron stars. As we demonstrate, diffusion effects can significantly impact the phase of the gravitational wave from the inspiral, manifesting at a magnitude of a few tens of milliradians at large orbit separations, equivalent to orbital frequencies of a few hertz. We also find that dissipation resulting from particle diffusion might increase the neutron star's temperature to approximately $10^7\mathrm{K}$ during the inspiral.

Comments: 29 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted to Phys. Rev. D (selected as Editors' Suggestion)