Gravitational waves from pulsars with measured braking index

Understand

We study the putative emission of gravitational waves (GWs) in particular for pulsars with measured braking index.

• We show that the appropriate combination of both GW emission and magnetic dipole brakes can naturally explain the measured braking index, when the surface magnetic field and the angle between the magnetic dipole and rotation axes are time dependent.
• Then we discuss the detectability of these very pulsars by aLIGO and the Einstein Telescope.
• We call attention to the realistic possibility that aLIGO can detect the GWs generated by at least some of these pulsars, such as Vela, for example.