Luminosity and frequency variations with time. Upper panel: portion of the light curve of the simulation with α = 10⁻⁷ and q = 0.6. The solid black curve shows the total 64-second-averaged luminosity (Eq. 6). We also show three contributions to the luminosity separately: The first, second, and third terms from Eq. (6) are plotted with dashed green, dotted blue, and dot-dashed red lines, respectively. The black dots are instantaneous luminosity values (every 2 s). Lower panel: rotation frequency Ω (solid black line) and Ω_± (dotted blue lines) for the same model. The horizontal dashed green line corresponds to the spin of the NS.