Accreting Double white dwarf binaries: Implications for LISA

Abstract

We explore the long-term evolution of mass-transferring white dwarf binaries undergoing both direct-impact and disk accretion and explore implications of such systems to gravitational wave astronomy. We cover a broad range of initial component masses and show that these systems, the majority of which lie within the LISA sensitivity range, exhibit prominent negative orbital frequency evolution (chirp) for a significant fraction of their lifetimes. Using a galactic population synthesis, we predict ~$2700$ double white dwarfs will be observable by LISA with negative chirps less than $-0.1y{r}^{-2}$. We also show that detections of mass-transferring double white dwarf systems by LISA may provide astronomers with unique ways of probing the physics governing close compact object binaries.

Accepted in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (5)

• Every interacting double white dwarf binary may merge
• Evolution of Close White Dwarf Binaries
• The Stability of Double White Dwarf Binaries Undergoing Direct Impact Accretion
• Dynamical Tides in Compact White Dwarf Binaries: Influence of Rotation
• Long-term evolution of double white dwarf binaries accreting through direct impact

Cited by in corpus (9)

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• The formation of single neutron-stars from double white-dwarf mergers via accretion-induced collapse
• Orbital Evolution of Neutron-Star -- White-Dwarf Binaries by Roche-Lobe Overflow and Gravitational Wave Radiation
• On the progenitors of AM CVn stars as LISA sources: the evolved donor star channel
• Degeneracy between mass and peculiar acceleration for the double white dwarfs in the LISA band
• The double helium-white dwarf channel for the formation of AM CVn binaries
• Merged white dwarfs and nucleosynthesis