Abstract
Gravitational waves (GWs) are one of the key predictions of Einstein’s theory of gen-eral relativity (GR). Scientists have been looking for evidence of GWs since their prediction by Einstein in 1916. The first direct detection was achieved by the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015, approximately 100 years after prediction, from merging of two black holes in a binary into a single black hole. Here we study GWs gen-erated by compact binary objects such as binary Neutron stars (NS-NS) systems and binary Neutron star-White dwarf (NS-WD) systems. These compact binary systems coalesce over time due to radiation of gravitational waves, following the field equations of GR. Conserva-tion of energy and angular momentum gives a mathematical description for the evolution of separation between the orbiting objects and eccentricity (e) of the orbit. Here we develop an improved analytical solution to the merger time for a circular binary system with an arbitrary semi-major axis (a), to the first post-Newtonian (1PN) accuracy. The results from the quadru-ple approximation and 1PN approximation are compared for a circular orbit (e = 0). These results show that the quadruple formula underestimates the merger time of binary systems...
M.Sc. (Physics)