Abstract
We model the adiabatic inspiral of relativistic binary neutron stars in a quasi-equilibrium (QE) approximation, and compute the gravitational wavetrain from the late phase of the inspiral. We compare corotational and irrotational sequences and find a significant difference in the inspiral rate, which is almost entirely caused by differences in the binding energy. We also compare our results with those of a point-mass post-Newtonian calculation. We illustrate how the late inspiral wavetrain computed with our QE numerical scheme can be matched to the subsequent plunge and merger waveform calculated with a fully relativistic hydrodynamics code.
- Received 28 June 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.65.024016
©2001 American Physical Society