Physics Of Relativistic Objects In Compact Binaries: From Birth To Coalescence (astrophysics And Space Science Library, Volume 359)

Physics of Relativistic Objects in Compact Binaries: From Birth to Coalescence Astrophysics and Space Science Library EDITORIAL BOARD Chairman W. B. BURTON, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. ([email protected]); University of Leiden, The Netherlands ([email protected]) F. BERTOLA, University of Padua, Italy J. P. CASSINELLI, University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A. C. J. CESARSKY, European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany P. EHRENFREUND, Leiden University, The Netherlands O. ENGVOLD, University of Oslo, Norway A. HECK, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France E. P. J. VAN DEN HEUVEL, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands V. M. KASPI, McGill University, Montreal, Canada J. M. E. KUIJPERS, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands H. VAN DER LAAN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands P. G. MURDIN, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK F. PACINI, Istituto Astronomia Arcetri, Firenze, Italy V. RADHAKRISHNAN, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India B. V. SOMOV, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Russia R. A. SUNYAEV, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/5664 Physics of Relativistic Objects in Compact Binaries: From Birth to Coalescence Edited by Monica Colpi Piergiorgio Casella Vittorio Gorini Ugo Moschella Andrea Possenti Editors Monica Colpi Department of Physics G. Occhialini University of Milano Bicocca Piazza della Scienza 3 20126 Milano Italy Piergiorgio Casella Astronomical Institute “Anton Pannekoek” University of Amsterdam Kruislaan 403 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands Vittorio Gorini Department of Physics and Mathematics University of Insubria Via Valleggio 11 22100 Como Italy Ugo Moschella Department of Physics and Mathematics University of Insubria Via Valleggio 11 22100 Como Italy Andrea Possenti INAF- Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari Loc. Poggio dei Pini, Strada 54, 09012 Capoterra (CA), Italy Cover illustration: Artist’s impression (courtesy of Ceravolo Graphic Studio) of a double pulsar binary emitting both radio and gravitational waves during the spiral-in phase. The system is depicted against a background of the population of coalescing double neutron star binaries in the Galaxy. ISSN 1864-5879 ISBN 978-1-4020-9263-3 (HB) ISBN 978-1-4020-9264-0 (e-book) Library of Congress Control Number: 2008936684 Published by Springer Science+Business Media B.V. P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands In association with Canopus Publishing Limited, 27 Queen Square, Bristol BS1 4ND, UK www.springer.com and www.canopusbooks.com All Rights Reserved © 2009 Canopus Publishing Limited No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Preface A very attractive feature of the theory of general relativity is that it is a perfect example of a “falsifiable” theory: no tunable parameter is present in the theory and therefore even a single experiment incompatible with a prediction of the theory would immediately lead to its inevitable rejection, at least in the physical regime of application of the aforementioned experiment. This fact provides additional scientific val