Saul A. Teukolsky 1998 ApJ 504 442 doi:10.1086/306082
Saul A. Teukolsky1,2
Show affiliationsNeutron stars in binary orbit emit gravitational waves and spiral slowly together. During this inspiral, they are expected to have very little vorticity. It is in fact a good approximation to treat the system as having zero vorticity, i.e., as irrotational. Because the orbital period is much shorter than the radiation reaction timescale, it is also an excellent approximation to treat the system as evolving through a sequence of equilibrium states, in each of which the gravitational radiation is neglected. In Newtonian gravity, one can simplify the hydrodynamic equations considerably for an equilibrium irrotational binary by introducing a velocity potential. The equations reduce to a Poisson-like equation for the potential, and a Bernoulli-type integral for the density. We show that a similar simplification can be carried out in general relativity. The resulting equations are much easier to solve than other formulations of the problem.
binaries: close; gravitation; hydrodynamics; relativity; stars: neutron; stars: rotation
Issue 1 (1998 September 1)
Received 1998 March 9, accepted for publication 1998 April 7
Saul A. Teukolsky 1998 ApJ 504 442
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