Orbital evolution of a binary neutron star and gravitational radiation

Abstract

We consider the dependence of the internal structure of a neutron star in a close binary system on the semi-major axis of the binary orbit, focusing on the case when the Roche lobes of the components are nearly filled. We adopt a polytropic equation of state. The temporal evolution of the semi-major axis and its dependence on the mass ratio of the binary components and the polytropic index are determined. The calculation are carried out right up to the moment of contact, when quasi-stationary model becomes invalid. We analyze differences in the shapes of the pulses of gravitational radiation emitted by a pair of point masses and by a binary neutron star, taking into account its internal structure and tidal deformations.