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Issue A&A
Volume 375, Number 3, September 2001
Page(s) 890 - 898
Section Formation, structure and evolution of stars
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010683



A&A 375, 890-898 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20010683

The gravitational wave signal from the Galactic disk population of binaries containing two compact objects

G. Nelemans1, L. R. Yungelson1, 2 and S. F. Portegies Zwart3

1  Astronomical Institute "Anton Pannekoek" , Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2  Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya Str., 109017 Moscow, Russia
3  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Ave. 77, Cambridge MA 02139, USA

(Received 16 March 2001 / Accepted 10 May 2001)

Abstract
We review the properties of Galactic binaries containing two compact objects, as derived by means of population synthesis. Using this information we calculate the gravitational wave signal of these binaries. At frequencies below $f \la 2$ mHz the double white dwarf population forms an unresolved background for the low-frequency gravitational wave detector LISA. Above this limit some few thousand double white dwarfs and few tens of binaries containing neutron stars will be resolved. Of the resolved double white dwarfs ~500 have a total mass above the Chandrasekhar limit. About ~95 of these have a measurable frequency change allowing a determination of their chirp mass. We discuss the properties of the resolved systems.


Key words: gravitational waves -- stars: statistics -- binaries: close -- galaxy: stellar content

Offprint request: G. Nelemans, GijsN@astro.uva.nl

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© ESO 2001


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