Continuous Gravitational Waves from Supersoft X-ray Sources: Promising Targets for deci-Hz Detectors

Abstract

Supersoft X-ray sources (SSSs) host white dwarfs (WDs) accreting at rates that sustain steady nuclear burning, driving rapid mass growth, radial contraction, and magnetic field amplification. Angular-momentum transfer from the accretion disk naturally spins up the WD, while the amplified internal magnetic field induces a non-axisymmetric deformation in presence of a misaligned rotation. Such WDs emits continuous gravitational waves (CGWs). We model the coupled evolutions of stellar mass, spin, and magnetic structure in accreting WDs in SSSs with MESA, and compute the resulting quadrupolar deformation with the Einstein-Maxwell solver XNS. We show that WDs in SSSs, particularly near the end of thermal timescale mass transfer and close to the Chandrasekhar mass limit, produce CGWs predominantly in the deci-Hz band accessible to planned detectors such as DECIGO, BBO, Deci-Hz, ALIA, and LGWA, and are distinguishable from other Galactic CGW sources such as AM CVn systems, detached double WDs, and isolated WDs. Well studied SSSs such as CAL 83 and RX J0019+2156 can be detectable, enabling targeted CGW measurements that directly probe WD's internal magnetic fields and rotation, while blind searches can reveal hundreds of obscured SSSs otherwise missed in soft X-rays and map the hidden population of accreting, rapidly rotating, magnetized WDs in nearby galaxies. A CGW detection from WDs in SSSs could also identify potential pre-explosion Type Ia progenitors.