Detecting Double Degenerate Progenitors of SNe Ia with LISA

Abstract

The Galactic population of close white dwarf binaries is expected to provide the largest number of gravitational wave sources for low frequency detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Current data analysis techniques have demonstrated the capability of resolving on the order of $10^4$ white dwarf binaries from a 2 year observation. Resolved binaries are either at high frequencies or large amplitudes. Such systems are more likely to be high-mass binaries, a subset of which will be progenitors of SNe Ia in the double degenerate scenario. We report on results of a study of the properties of resolved binaries using a population synthesis model of the Galactic white dwarf binaries and a LISA data analysis algorithm using Mock LISA Data Challenge tools.