Gravitational Waves from Gamma-Ray Pulsar Glitches

Abstract

We use data from pulsar gamma-ray glitches recorded by the Fermi Large Area Telescope as input to theoretical models of gravitational wave signals the glitches might generate. We find that the typical peak amplitude of the gravity wave signal from gamma-ray pulsar glitches lies between 10^{-23} and 10^{-35} in dimensionless units, with peak frequencies in the range of 1 to 1000 Hz, depending on the model. We estimate the signal-to-noise for all gamma-ray glitches, and discuss detectability with current gravity wave detectors. Our results indicate that the strongest predicted signals are potentially within reach of current detectors, and that pulsar gamma-ray glitches are promising targets for gravity wave searches by current and next-generation detectors.

Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal; 20 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables