Proposal for Determining the Total Masses of Eccentric Binaries Using Signature of Periastron Advance in Gravitational Waves

Abstract

We propose a new method for determining total masses of low frequency eccentric binaries (such as, neutron star binaries with orbital frequency $f\gsim 10^{-3}$Hz) from their gravitational waves. In this method we use the frequency shift caused by periastron advance, and it works even at low frequency band where chirp signal due to radiation reaction is difficult to be measured. It is shown that the total masses of several Galactic neutron star binaries might be measured accurately (within a few percent error) by LISA with operation period of $\sim 10$ years.