Gravitational wave emission from neutron stars

A new and exciting era of astronomy is about to begin, where ripples in gravity itself are used to probe the Universe. A prime target of this gravitational wave astronomy are neutron stars - small dense stars capable of rotating hundreds of times a second. It has been proposed that a neutron star in a binary system might emit gravitational waves, but only if it is deformed away from axisymmetry in some way. The aim of this project is to look at the complex interplay of gravity, hydrodynamics, elasticity and nuclear physics at work in in these stellar systems, to see under what conditions such a non-axisymmery might be formed. The output of this research would guide the efforts of gravitational wave astronomers, and could allow us to use neutron stars as nuclear physics laboratories, probing regimes inaccessible to terrestrial experimenters.