Scalar Gravitational Radiation from Binary Stars and Planetary Orbits

Abstract

The gravitational radiation arising from the relative orbital motion of a two-body gravitationally bound system is analyzed on the basis of the Brans-Dicke theory. This theory predicts radiation by a scalar field as well as the usual tensor field. It is found that for small eccentricities the quadrupole scalar radiation due to the circular component of the orbit is the dominant contribution of the scalar radiation field, and that this is almost a hundred times smaller than tensor quadrupole radiation.