Galactic merger rates of pulsar binaries

Details Galactic merger rates of pulsar binaries Galactic merger rates of pulsar binaries

Jun 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006phdt.........4k&link_type=abstract

PhD Thesis,roquest Dissertations And Theses 2006. Section 0163, Part 0606 130 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- Illin

Mathematics

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Galactic Merger, Pulsar Binaries, Gravitational Waves, Binary Stars

Scientific paper

Pulsar binaries in close orbits are strong sources of gravitational waves (GWs). With large-scale interferometers, it will be possible to detect GW signals from these objects for the first time within the coming decade. Astrophysical properties of sources, e.g. population sizes or event rates, are important in accessing the detector design and performance. In this thesis, I introduce a novel statistical analysis method to calculate Galactic merger rates of pulsar binaries based on known systems in the Galactic field. This work involves the development of Galactic pulsar population models using Monte Carlo methods, detailed modeling of observational selection effects for large- scale pulsar surveys, and deriving a probability density function of the rate estimates using a Bayesian analysis. The method can be applied for any type of binaries observed as radio pulsars. Currently, two types of pulsar binaries have been observed: double-neutron-star (NS-NS) systems and neutron star-white dwarf (NS-WD) binaries. Considering three merging NS-NS binaries including PSR J0737-3039, I obtain the most likely values of Galactic NS-NS merger rate range between ~ 4 - 220 Myr -1 , depending on different pulsar models. Extrapolating Galactic rate estimates up to the volume accessible by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), and assuming a reference pulsar population model, I find that the NS-NS inspiral event rates for the initial and advanced LIGO are 35 × 10 -3 yr -1 and 190 yr -1 , respectively. In the case of merging NS-WD binaries, the most likely rates are found in the range ~ 0.2 - 10 Myr -1 . Based on this result, I conclude that the contribution from this population on the confusion noise level for LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is negligible. In addition to merging binaries, I estimate formation rates of eccentric NS-WD binaries, which range ~ 0.5 - 16 Myr -1, based on different models. Due to their interesting evolutionary history, the formation rate of eccentric NS-WD binaries provides important constraints on the theory of binary evolution. Lastly, by means of these empirical rate estimates, I show how to constrain the parameters of theoretical models for stellar binary evolution.

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