Gravitational radiation from accelerating jets

Elly Leiderschneider, Tsvi Piran*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nonspherical rapid acceleration of mass (or energy) to a relativistic velocity is a natural source of gravitational radiation. Such conditions arise in both long and short gamma-ray bursts whose central engine ejects relativistic jets. The resulting gravitational wave signal is of a memory type, rising to a finite level (of order 4GE/r) over a duration that corresponds to the longer of either the injection time or the acceleration time of the jet. We explore the properties of such signals and their potential detectability. Unfortunately, the expected signals are below the frequency band of Advanced LIGO-Virgo-Kagra and above LISA. However, they fall within the range of the planned BBO and DECIGO. While current sensitivity is marginal for the detection of jet gravitational wave signals from gamma-ray bursts, hidden relativistic jets that exist within some core collapse supernove could be detected. Such a detection would reveal the acceleration mechanism and the activity of the central engine, which cannot be explored directly in any other way.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104002
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume104
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Physical Society.

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