# Untitled Document

A Family of Gravitational Waveforms

from Rapidly Rotating Nascent Neutron Stars <sup>1</sup> This note was written in 1996. It was not intended for publication. Since I have been getting requests from people interested in GW data analysis about the waveform information, I thought it might be useful to put this note on gr-qc, so that I don’t have to spend time looking for the TeX file every time I get a request.

Dong Lai$`^2`$ Current Address: Space Sciences Bldg., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

Theoretical Astrophysics, 130-33, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

(April 1996)

This note describes fitting formulae for the gravitational waveforms generated by a rapidly rotating neutron star (e.g., newly-formed in the core collapse of a supernova) as it evolves from an initial axisymmetric configuration toward a triaxial ellipsoid (Maclaurin spheroid $``$ Dedekind ellipsoid). This evolution is driven by the gravitational radiation reaction (a special case of the CFS instability). The details and numerical results can found in \[Lai & Shapiro, 1995, ApJ, 442, 259; Here referred as LS\].

I will use the units such that $`G=c=1`$.

The waveform (including the polarization) is given by Eq. (3.6) of LS. Since the waveform is quasi-periodic, I will give fitting formulae for the wave amplitude $`h`$ (Eq. \[3.7\] of LS) and the quantity $`(dN/d\mathrm{ln}f)`$ (Eq. \[3.8\] of LS; related to the frequency sweeping rate), from which the waveform $`h_+(t)`$ and $`h_\times (t)`$ can be easily generated in a straightforward manner.

Wave Amplitude: The waveform is parametrized by three numbers: $`f_{max}`$ is the maximum wave frequency in Hertz, $`M_{1.4}=M/(1.4M_{})`$ is the NS mass in units of $`1.4M_{}`$, $`R_{10}=R/(10\mathrm{km})`$ is the NS radius in units of $`10`$ km. (Of course, the distance $`D`$ enters the expression trivially.) It is convenient to express the dependence of $`h`$ on $`t`$ through $`f`$ (the wave frequency), with $`f(t)`$ to be determined later. A good fitting formula is

$$h[f(t);f_{max},M,R]=\frac{M^2}{DR}A\left(\frac{f}{f_{max}}\right)^{2.1}\left(1\frac{f}{f_{max}}\right)^{0.5},$$
$`(1a)`$   
where

$$A=\{\begin{array}{cc}(\overline{f}_{max}/1756)^{2.7},\hfill & \text{for }\overline{f}_{max}500\text{ Hz;}\hfill \\ (\overline{f}_{max}/1525)^3,\hfill & \text{for }\overline{f}_{max}330\text{ Hz;}\hfill \end{array}\mathrm{with}\overline{f}_{max}f_{max}R_{10}^{3/2}M_{1.4}^{1/2}.$$
$`(1b)`$   
Note that if we want real numbers, we have

$$\frac{M^2}{DR}=4.619\times 10^{22}M_{1.4}^2R_{10}^1\left(\frac{30\mathrm{Mpc}}{D}\right).$$

Number of wave cycles per logarithmic frequency: The fitting formula is

$$\left|\frac{dN}{d\mathrm{ln}f}\right|=\left(\frac{R}{M}\right)^{5/2}\frac{0.016^2(R_{10}^{3/2}M_{1.4}^{1/2}f/1\mathrm{Hz})}{A^2(f/f_{max})^{4.2}[1(f/f_{max})]}.$$
$`(2)`$   
Note (i): using equations (1)-(2), we obtain the “characteristic amplitude”:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill h_c=h\left|\frac{dN}{d\mathrm{ln}f}\right|^{1/2}& =0.016\frac{M^{3/4}R^{1/4}}{D}\left(\frac{R_{10}^{3/2}M_{1.4}^{1/2}f}{1\mathrm{Hz}}\right)^{1/2}\hfill \\ & =5.3\times 10^{23}\left(\frac{30\mathrm{Mpc}}{D}\right)M_{1.4}^{3/4}R_{10}^{1/4}\left(\frac{R_{10}^{3/2}M_{1.4}^{1/2}f}{1\mathrm{Hz}}\right)^{1/2},\hfill \end{array}$$

which agrees with Eq. (3.12) of LS to within $`10\%`$ \[Note that in Eq. (3.12) of LS, the factor $`f^{1/2}`$ should be replaced by $`(R_{10}^{3/2}M_{1.4}^{1/2}f)^{1/2}`$, similar to the above expression.\]

Note (ii): The accuracy of these fitting formulae (as compared to the numerical results shown in LS) is typically within $`10\%`$. When $`f`$ is very close to $`f_{max}`$, the error in the fitting can be as large as $`30\%`$.

Note (iii): The frequency evolution $`f(t)`$ is obtained by integrating the equation $`f^2/\dot{f}=|dN/d\mathrm{ln}f|`$ (note that the frequency sweeps from $`f_{max}`$ to zero). For example, we can choose $`t=0`$ at $`f=0.9f_{max}`$. (Note that one should not choose $`t=0`$ at $`f=f_{max}`$ as the time would diverge — the actual evolution near $`f_{max}`$ depends on the initial perturbations).

Once $`f(t)`$ is obtained, the waveform can be calculated as (cf. Eq. \[3.6\] of LS):

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill h_+& =h[f(t);f_{max},M,R]\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Phi }(t)\frac{1+\mathrm{cos}^2\theta }{2},\hfill \\ \hfill h_\times & =h[f(t);f_{max},M,R]\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Phi }(t)\mathrm{cos}\theta ,\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`\theta `$ is the angle between the rotation axis of the star and the line of sight from the earth, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(t)=2\pi f(t)𝑑t`$ is the phase of the gravitational wave.

Note (iv): $`f_{max}`$ typically ranges from $`100`$ Hz to $`1000`$ Hz (see Fig. 5 of LS); $`M_{1.4}`$ and $`R_{10}`$ are of order unity for realistic neutron stars.