Transient gravitational waves from pulsar post-glitch recoveries

Abstract

ABSTRACT This work explores whether gravitational waves (GWs) from neutron star (NS) mountains can be detected with current second-generation and future third-generation GW detectors. In particular, we focus on a scenario where transient mountains are formed immediately after an NS glitch. In a glitch, an NS’s spin frequency abruptly increases and then often exponentially recovers back to, but never quite reaches, the spin frequency prior to the glitch. If the recovery is ascribed to an additional torque due to a transient mountain, we find that GWs from that mountain are marginally detectable with Advanced LIGO at design sensitivity and is very likely to be detectable for third-generation detectors such as the Einstein Telescope. Using this model, we are able to find analytical expressions for the GW amplitude and its duration in terms of observables.