Neutron Star - White Dwarf Binaries: Probing Formation Pathways and Natal Kicks with LISA

Understand

Neutron star-white dwarf (NS+WD) binaries offer a unique opportunity for studying NS-specific phenomena with gravitational waves.

• In this paper, we employ the binary population synthesis technique to study the Galactic population of NS+WDs with the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).
• We anticipate approximately $\mathcal{O}(10^2)$ detectable NS+WDs by LISA, encompassing both circular and eccentric binaries formed via different pathways.
• Despite the challenge of distinguishing NS+WDs from more prevalent double white dwarfs in the LISA data (especially at frequencies below 2 mHz), we show that their eccentricity and chirp mass distributions may provide avenues to explore the NS natal kicks and common envelope evolution.