Gravitational Waves from Compact Bodies

Abstract

A review is given of recent research on gravitational waves from compact bodies and its relevance to the LIGO/VIRGO international network of high-frequency (10 to 10,000 Hz) gravitational-wave detectors, and to the proposed LISA system of low-frequency (0.1 to 0.0001 Hz) detectors. The sources that are reviewed are ordinary binary star systems, binaries made from compact bodies (black holes and neutron stars), the final inspiral and coalescence of compact-body binaries, the inspiral of stars and small black holes into massive black holes, the stellar core collapse that triggers supernovae, and the spin of neutron stars. This paper is adapted from a longer review article entitled ``Gravitational Waves'' (GRP-411) that the author has written for the Proceedings of the Snowmass '94 Summer Study on Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Cosmology.