All Physics Faculty Publications

Low Frequency Gravitational Waves from Binary White Dwarf MACHOs

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Volume

540

Issue

1

Publication Date

2000

First Page

L5

Last Page

L8

Abstract

The possibility that Galactic halo MACHOs are white dwarfs has recently attracted much attention. Using the known properties of white dwarf binaries in the Galactic disk as a model, we estimate the possible contribution of halo white dwarf binaries to the low-frequency (10-5 Hz < f < 10-1 Hz) gravitational wave background. Assuming the fraction of white dwarfs in binaries is the same in the halo as in the disk, we find the confusion background from halo white dwarf binaries could be 5 times stronger than the expected contribution from Galactic disk binaries, dominating the response of the proposed space-based interferometer LISA. Low-frequency gravitational wave observations will be the key to discovering the nature of the dark MACHO binary population.

Comments

Published by American Astronomical Society in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Publisher's PDF available through remote link. May require subscription if user is not on the USU Network.

https://doi.org/10.1086/312867

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