Identifying Disappearance of a White Dwarf Binary with LISA

Abstract

We discuss the prospect of identifying a white dwarf binary merger by monitoring disappearance of its nearly monochromatic gravitational wave. For a ten-year operation of the laser interferometer space antenna (LISA), the chance probability of observing such an event is roughly estimated to be 20%. By simply using short-term coherent signal integrations, we might determine the merger time with an accuracy of $\sim $3-10 days. Also considering its expected sky localizability $\sim0.1$-$ 0.01 {\rm deg^2}$, LISA might make an interesting contribution to the multi-messenger study on a merger event.