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Session J9 - Experimental Gravity and Gravitational Radiation.
FOCUS session, Sunday afternoon, April 29
Room 2, Renaissance Hotel

[J9.013] Physics and Astrophysics from Distorted Pulsars

Stephen Fairhurst, Lee Samuel Finn, Joshua L. Willis, Jacek Wisniewski (Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA)

Distorted rotating neutron stars are good candidates for sources of gravitational waves, which can be detected in the near future. Working within the framework of Brans-Dicke generalization of GR, we calculate the form of such radiation and the response of an interferometric detector. Then, we analyze the possibility of placing a lower bound on the Brans-Dicke constant based on such measurements. Also, we propose how to obtain information about distortion and orientation of the star. The statistical analysis of the signal in the presence of noise is outlined. Finally, numerical simulations (with LIGO II noise spectrum) provide estimates for the values of parameters we can expect for different sources.

Part J of program listing