Bursts of gravitational waves due to crustquake from pulsars

Abstract

We explore here a possible consequence of crustquake, namely, the generation of bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) due to a sudden change in the quadrupole moment (QM) of a deformed pulsar as a result of crustquake. The occurrence of crustquake in a rotating neutron star can play many important roles in neutron star (NS) dynamics. Here we propose that if a pulsar undergoes crustquake, then the generation of bursts of GWs is an inevitable consequence of crustquake. We have estimated the strain amplitudes ($h_0$) for such bursts of GWs and compared with the strain amplitudes for GWs produced in various other scenarios for isolated pulsars as suggested earlier in the literature. The values we obtain are comparable to those suggestions. We also estimate the order of magnitude for characteristic strain ($h_c$) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) for such bursts. For exotic quarks stars, a multifold enhancement of strain amplitudes is expected, which makes quark stars a potential source of gravitational waves as a result of crustquake. The absence of such waves may put constraints on such hypothetical stars