Gravitational wave emission from neutron stars

一个新的令人兴奋的天文学时代即将开始，在这个时代，引力本身的涟漪被用来探测宇宙。这种引力波天文学的主要目标是中子星--一种能够每秒自转数百次的致密小恒星。有人提出，双星系统中的中子星可能会发出引力波，但前提是它必须以某种方式偏离轴对称变形。这个项目的目的是观察引力、流体动力学、弹性和核物理在这些恒星系统中发挥作用的复杂相互作用，看看在什么条件下可以形成这样的非轴对称。这项研究的成果将指导引力波天文学家的努力，并可能使我们能够将中子星用作核物理实验室，探测地球实验者无法进入的区域。

A new and exciting era of astronomy is about to begin, where ripples in gravity itself are used to probe the Universe. A prime target of this gravitational wave astronomy are neutron stars - small dense stars capable of rotating hundreds of times a second. It has been proposed that a neutron star in a binary system might emit gravitational waves, but only if it is deformed away from axisymmetry in some way. The aim of this project is to look at the complex interplay of gravity, hydrodynamics, elasticity and nuclear physics at work in in these stellar systems, to see under what conditions such a non-axisymmery might be formed. The output of this research would guide the efforts of gravitational wave astronomers, and could allow us to use neutron stars as nuclear physics laboratories, probing regimes inaccessible to terrestrial experimenters.