Quadrupole Moment of a Magnetically Confined Mountain on an Accreting Neutron Star in General Relativity

General relativistic corrections are calculated for the quadrupole moment of a magnetically confined mountain on an accreting neutron star. The hydromagnetic structure of the mountain satisfies the general relativistic Grad–Shafranov equation supplemented by the flux-freezing condition of ideal magn...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pedro H. B. Rossetto, Jörg Frauendiener, Andrew Melatos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:The Astrophysical Journal
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada276
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Summary:General relativistic corrections are calculated for the quadrupole moment of a magnetically confined mountain on an accreting neutron star. The hydromagnetic structure of the mountain satisfies the general relativistic Grad–Shafranov equation supplemented by the flux-freezing condition of ideal magnetohydrodynamics, as in previous calculations of the magnetic dipole moment. It is found that the ellipticity, and hence the gravitational wave strain, are up to 12% greater than in the analogous Newtonian system. The direct contribution of the magnetic field to the nonaxisymmetric component of the stress-energy tensor is shown to be negligible in accreting systems such as low-mass X-ray binaries.
ISSN:1538-4357