Pickard, LR; (2013) Gravitational Waves from Eccentric Binary Systems and Globular Clusters. Masters thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Binary systems have long been expected to be sources of gravitational waves. The nature of the emission from a binary is determined by its orbital parameters, with eccentricity having a particularly notable e ffect, changing the frequency at which the peak emission occurs, and the range of harmonic numbers it occurs over. Globular clusters, containing many binary systems, are therefore likely to have signi ficant gravitational wave emission. I calculate the gravitational wave emission from the known eccentric binaries in the galaxy, and use the results to create a luminosity function for the gravitational wave emission from these binaries, which is compared to the x-ray luminosity function. The nature of the gravitational wave emission from a binary system whose parameters are not well known could, by comparison, be used to constrain these. The luminosity function for eccentric high mass X-ray binaries in gravitational waves is shown to be very similar to the X-ray luminosity function. A monte carlo simulation of many binary systems is used to model a globular cluster. I find that the gravitational wave emission occurs over a wide range of frequencies up to a maximum of order 103Hz. Finally, representative simulations for each globular cluster in the galaxy are used to build up a gravitational wave luminosity function for all the globular clusters in the galaxy.

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