Astron. Astrophys. 355, 1209-1213 (2000)

3. Conclusion

We have calculated the expected level of angular fluctuations of cosmic stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds produced by populations of astrophysical sources associated with galaxies. The dependence of the source formation rate on redshift is taken into account using global star formation history in the Universe. The relative rms fluctuations of the GW flux does not depend on the specific source formation rate per galaxy, only on its evolution with redshift. The level of relative flux fluctuations at angular scales degree is found to be for coalescing white dwarfs with insignificant dependence on the cosmological model assumed, and for hot neutron stars, with stronger fluctuations for flat cosmological constant dominated Universe. Angular dependence of these fluctuations is a distinctive feature of such GW backgrounds and can be used to discriminate between astrophysical and relic cosmological stochastic noises in future experiments.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: March 21, 2000
helpdesk.link@springer.de