Gravitational Waves from Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs
Abstract
We propose fast-spinning, magnetic white dwarfs in binary systems as promising sources of continuous gravitational waves for future space-based detectors. The aim of this work is to determine the maximum ellipticities and gravitational wave amplitudes achievable by magnetically confined mountains accreted on the star's magnetic poles, and to assess their detectability against predicted sensitivity curves. Self-consistent magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium simulations are used to characterize the structure of the accreted mountain. A parametric search is then performed on these simulations to determine the maximum mass values that can be confined by the star's magnetic field. The stellar ellipticity ε grows nearly linearly with accreted mass Ma up to a maximum, and was found to scale as εmax ≃ 1.6×10−2T5−2 B*,82, while the maximum gravitational wave amplitude as h0, max ≃ 1.2×10−23T5−2 B*,82, where T5 represents the temperature of the mountain in units of 105 K and B*,8 represents the star's polar magnetic field intensity in units of 108 G. Across a representative range of source inclinations, distances and spin periods, magnetically confined mountains on white dwarfs can generate continuous gravitational waves detectable by future space-based interferometers. BBO and DECIGO can probe diverse configurations, whereas LISA, TianQin, and Taiji require highly magnetized systems. Applications to known fast-spinning white dwarfs indicate that cooler accreted mountains favor detectability.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{rossetto2026gravitational,
title = {{Gravitational Waves from Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs}},
author = {Pedro Henrique Barboza Rossetto and Manoel Felipe Sousa and Diego Antonio Falceta Gonçalves},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.33409},
eprint = {2610.33409},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33409},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gravitational Waves from Magnetically Confined Mountains on Accreting White Dwarfs
AU - Pedro Henrique Barboza Rossetto
AU - Manoel Felipe Sousa
AU - Diego Antonio Falceta Gonçalves
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.33409
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33409
AB - We propose fast-spinning, magnetic white dwarfs in binary systems as promising sources of continuous gravitational waves for future space-based detectors. The aim of this work is to determine the maximum ellipticities and gravitational wave amplitudes achievable by magnetically confined mountains accreted on the star's magnetic poles, and to assess their detectability against predicted sensitivity curves. Self-consistent magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium simulations are used to characterize the structure of the accreted mountain. A parametric search is then performed on these simulations to determine the maximum mass values that can be confined by the star's magnetic field. The stellar ellipticity ε grows nearly linearly with accreted mass M_a up to a maximum, and was found to scale as ε_max ≃ 1.6×10^−2T_5^−2 B_*,8^2, while the maximum gravitational wave amplitude as h_0, max ≃ 1.2×10^−23T_5^−2 B_*,8^2, where T_5 represents the temperature of the mountain in units of 10^5 K and B_*,8 represents the star's polar magnetic field intensity in units of 10^8 G. Across a representative range of source inclinations, distances and spin periods, magnetically confined mountains on white dwarfs can generate continuous gravitational waves detectable by future space-based interferometers. BBO and DECIGO can probe diverse configurations, whereas LISA, TianQin, and Taiji require highly magnetized systems. Applications to known fast-spinning white dwarfs indicate that cooler accreted mountains favor detectability.
ER -